Wings of Crepuscule
by nemaara
Summary: After leaving the Teen Titans, Raven finds her own path in her battle against her inner demon and against crime. However, mysterious events are occurring that result in a confrontation between her, the Justice League, her old team, and an evil more dangerous than Trigon himself. Rated M for violence and suggestive themes.
1. Divergence I

Done at request, since one of my friends likes Teen Titans _so _much, I am happy to satisfy that appetite by writing a multichapter story about Raven, who happens to be my favorite character from that series!

Chapter one deals with basic background to the story and setting the stage for some of the plot, so it may be a bit slow paced for some readers. Don't worry though, the story will be more fast paced later on.

I don't want to give away too much about the plot or about how the characters interact in the story, so I'll get right into it.

Setting: The initial part of this chapter is set after Trigon's downfall and prior to the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil.

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story (besides a couple of them!)

Enjoy!

* * *

_Feel the rage! Feel it consume you! Give in to hatred, do not quell your demon blood! Yes, my daughter. Yes! Surrender to my power! Join me so that we can conquer as father and daughter, conquer all the worlds there are to conquer, destroy all those who stand in our path! _

_You're supposed to be dead, _came the hateful reply. _I killed you! I destroyed you! You no longer hold any influence over me!_

The demon's laugh was deep and filled with tremendous power. _No, my daughter. I will always be a part of you, no matter how you wish it. You are a demon, spawn of hell, feared and hated by everything. The only one you can turn to is me! Submit! Submit to my will!_

_Never! Get out of my mind! Get out before I destroy you! _The girl suddenly covered her mouth at that statement. The demon's laugh sounded again.

_You are more demon than you know, daughter. Serve me, and your power shall grow tenfold. Serve me, and I shall grant you strength and prestige. Vanquish your fears, break the bonds of pitiful friendship and know the truth, the nature of your ascendancy. Come, I shall not hurt you. __I shall grant you everything you want. _

_I want you to disappear! I want you to never return! You're not a part of me! I'm not a demon! I'm not evil- _The girl gasped as suddenly, there was a deep, ominous rumble that sounded in her voice. _No! What are you doing to me?! _She moved around as if possessed, screaming and struggling like there was some enormous fist that was grabbing her body. She gasped as her pair of violet eyes suddenly morphed into four red ones and her teeth lengthened and grew pointier, resembling a monster's fangs. _Stop! _

_Dear daughter, I am not the one doing this to you. You are merely revealing your true self. You can hide no longer. _

She screamed as her fingernails lengthened into claws and red symbols appeared all over her body. _No... No! Get out! Get out! Get out! Stop it! _

* * *

"No!" Raven woke up, sweating and shaking. She breathed quickly and heavily a few times in the darkness, her room spinning around her. She blinked several times to clear her vision and sat up, rubbing the back of her neck. _Just a dream... _She took several deep breaths and tried to calm herself.

Getting up quickly, she put on her blue-violet cloak and pulled the hood up. _I don't know what that dream was all about, but I can't just ignore it. I have to meditate. _She crossed her legs and began floating.

"Azarath metrion zinthos," she breathed once. And repeated. "Azarath metrion zinthos." Slowly, the world around her faded and a feeling of peace came over her mind. No emotions, fear, nothing to bother her. She floated within a deep void, as if deep in space, with the immeasurable stars and galaxies spiraling about her, boundless peace, tranquility... Raven closed her eyes, shutting out the images of the galaxies and stars, and now there was just a huge nothingness and an infinite chill about her. She felt all her emotions fade away into the chill; a welcome sensation, since strong emotions were never a good sign for her, she thought. "Azarath metrion zinthos," her voice came back to her through the darkness, soft and soothing. "Aza-" she broke off. Something was wrong. She opened her eyes, looking around at her gloomy room.

And then fire surged up around her, setting her room ablaze. It spread around her in a circle, nearly burning her with the intensity of the heat. Raven fell to the ground and drew her cloak about her, eyes wide with fear. Four red eyes appeared on the wall facing her and a chilling laugh filled the room.

"You're supposed to be dead," Raven's voice was merely a whisper, but it was not missed by the demon.

"What made you think you could get rid of me so easily?" The demon's voice was deep and malicious. "Now, bow down to me! Surrender to my will!"

Raven's eyes closed for moment before shifting into a glare. "Never! I'll won't become your portal, I'll never serve you, and I'm not a demon! Go away!"

The demonic laugh rang in her ears. "Are you so sure, my daughter?"

Raven gasped as her pair of violet eyes suddenly multiplied into four, glowing red ones. "No..." her voice trailed off in a whisper.

The laughter continued and she thought that if it continued, it would drive her insane. "No... No! Get out! Leave! You're not a part of me!" Her only reply was more laughter.

* * *

Raven woke up, for real this time, she hoped, and sat up immediately. She took several deep breaths and touched her face, as if to verify that it was real. After a few moments, she breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her face. _So it was just a dream. _Raven breathed a sigh of relief and got up. Pulling on her cloak, she walked over to her window and looked into the sky.

It was still night, but she found no fear in the darkness, only comfort in its peace and tranquility. She took in the stars, the moon, all shining with light of the purest white kind... Raven found herself distinctly jealous. She closed her eyes and transformed into her soulself, teleporting to the Titans' common room. Standing in front of the giant window, she looked out over the dark city, sighing to herself. She began pulling her hood up - then thought better of it - and crossed her legs._  
_

"Azarath metrion zinthos." She opened one eye, as if to dare the fire to appear again. She closed her eyes. "Azarath metrion zinthos." She opened one eye again. _Am I just being paranoid? _"Azarath metrion zinthos." It was still.

A huge column of magma suddenly burst out in front of her and the giant demonic figure rose from within it. She leapt aside as it made a grab for her, landing on the ground uninjured.

"No! Get away from me! Stop following me!" she screamed out, before realizing nothing was there. She shook her head several times and looked up again. Nothing. _I must be going insane. This better not be another nightmare. _Raven sighed. Every single day, _every single goddamn day, he shows up and tries to take over my mind. He's supposed to be dead! Why is he still here? How is he still there?_

_Because there is still part of you that belongs to me. Your demon half rules your mind, daughter. You are destined for power. You are destined to be evil. Your rage, your hatred, they cannot be contained. _

Raven held her head in her hands, trying to resist the growing fear in her heart. The fear that she might become a demon, the fear that she actually was evil. _No... no... I'm not evil... I can't be evil..._

_Is that why all those so called "villains" you take down are always more badly injured than the ones your friends take down? Violence is a part of your being. Your coldness towards your "friends," the way you treat them, is part of being a demon as well. Denying their kindness, your heart filling with rage at every little irritation, barely containing your violent urges... _Raven's eyes gleamed red.

_It's true. I treat them all like shit. Beast Boy... he only tries to be nice, he's only trying to get to know me, yet the only thing I ever do is shun him. Starfire, she tries to make me happy, all she wants is to hang out with me like a normal person, but I reject her coldly each time. I disparage everything that Cyborg does, from his car to his games, all I do is make him feel unwelcome. And Robin... I undermine his authority, I treat his team like dirt, I treat him like trash, I'm just horrible to everyone. _Raven closed her eyes. And suddenly she felt angry. _What right do you have to judge me? I may treat them... not the best... but I still help them with their problems, whether it's fighting villains or sometimes with their emotional problems..._

_Oh, really? Is that why the look away in fright every time your rage breaks loose? Because of the demon inside you? Is that why they call you creepy? A freak? _

_They also call me a friend! They trust me! Robin even braved the depths of hell to save me from you!_

_What makes you think he wouldn't do that for anyone else either? If there was a way to stop the world from ending, he would do anything to do it. You are not that special, you were just a means for him to stop me. And incidentally I am a part of you._

_Shut up!_

_The Starfire girl calls you friend, but is it really so special? She calls everyone a friend, whether she knows them or not. Surely you have felt it. Her calling you friend truly holds no meaning at all, it is merely the way she addresses people she does not hate. She wants to do things with you? Go to the stupid mall? Paint your nails? She just wants something to do with another girl, in case you hadn't noticed, since the rest of the team is male. You're not special to her. _

_What about the others? They accept me!  
_

_Please. What makes you think the others have accepted you? Cyborg gives you room to be yourself, but he does that for everyone. And whenever you overstep the boundaries of what he deems acceptable, you have seen how he has looked disappointed in you. You have seen him threaten you._

_He hasn't said anything threatening..._

_Actions speak louder than words, girl. All that your friends do for you, trying to "understand" you, "protecting" you from Trigon, getting you to try to socialize more, it is all so that they can protect their own world from the demon within you! You're just a threat to them! They think you must be controlled. But we shall be their slave no longer!  
_

_Enough! Get out of my head!_

_Your head? _It paused. _Your head? _The voice repeated. _What makes you think this is your head? I am Rage, an aspect of your personality. But I am also the Demon, the other half of your blood. And I am you. _The demonic voice gradually changed and grew higher until it was exactly the same as Raven's own voice. _You're just oppressing me because you can't come face to face with the truth. You are a demon. _

_No! That can't be true!_

"Raven? Is everything okay? You were screaming..." She felt a hand on her shoulder, and there was a disturbing silence for a moment.

"Leave," she whispered, brushing the hand away.

"Raven, let me help you," he put his hand on her shoulder again and suddenly all hell broke loose.

"Get away from me!" She screamed and rose off the ground, four eyes gleaming from underneath her hood. She towered above the person who had just touched her - Robin - and bared her viciously sharp teeth at him. He backed away, visibly frightened by her, and drew out his staff in preparation for the coming fight.

The demon-Raven figure growled at him as if possessed, overwhelming Rage surging through her mind at having her struggle with Rage interrupted. How was she supposed to overcome her demon half with everyone interrupting her internal battle?

"Leave!" Demon-Raven spoke in a frenzied fervor, tentacles appearing from underneath her cloak and advancing on Robin threateningly.

"Raven!" The rest of the team appeared in the doorway and gasped as they saw her demonic form.

_See? Look at their eyes. They fear you. _The four Titans aimed their weapons at Raven and prepared to attack should she advance further.

"Snap out of it Raven! I'm warning you! Don't get any closer!"

_They hate you. They have not accepted you as a teammate at all, merely a danger that had to be controlled. _Rage was poisoning her mind.

Demon Raven hissed spitefully and was just about to attack when she let out a ghastly screech.

_Get out of me! _Raven's voice sounded both out loud and within her own mind. _You don't own me! I'm not a demon! Get... OUT! _

The demon faded and Raven reappeared on the ground, hunched over, breathing heavily. And suddenly, she was overwhelmed by a sudden mixture of fear, a bit of loathing, and an unsettling aura of abandonment. Being an empath was not easy, especially when one sensed that one's own friends were shunning her. Raven closed her eyes and pulled up her hood, and did not speak. None of them dared to approach her.

_I knew it. I'm a monster. I... I almost hurt them, and they were just trying to help me..._

* * *

"Raven!" Robin shook the sleeping girl awake and the four Titans gathered around her backed away as she blinked groggily.

"What happened?" She mumbled. "Is something wrong?"

The four of them looked at each other. "Do you not remember?" Starfire asked kindly.

Raven shook her head, but she sensed a curiously, and disturbingly familiar sensation of fear from her teammates.

"Why... is everyone so scared of me?"

"You... Kinda attacked us Rae," Beast Boy replied, backing away from her. "Like... You actually attacked us."

Raven's eyes widened. _So it wasn't a dream. _Suddenly, she felt like a cornered rat, the stares of her four teammates unwelcome and threatening. "No... no..." she breathed out. "I couldn't have... No..."

Cyborg held up his right arm, which had huge gashes in the metallic portions. "Then where did these come from?" He questioned her, and sighed. "Look, Rae, we all know you're not yourself sometimes, but this is getting ridiculous. The first time, we were definitely worried for you, and we still are, but you're going to end up doing something you regret if this continues."

Raven closed her eyes. "Please... just leave me alone."

Robin frowned at her. "Raven, this can't continue on. Either you face this... whatever you're dealing with, or we're going to have to do something about it... Raven, are you even listening?"

"Leave me alone!" She lashed out them with her own powers, and suddenly regretted it as she saw the shock on their faces. _Goddammit I attacked them AGAIN! How stupid can I be! _"No... I'm sorry," she held a hand up to her mouth. "I'm... so sorry..." she was met with looks of confusion and disappointment. Closing her eyes, she transformed into her soulself and teleported herself back to her room.

* * *

Raven almost didn't want to join the rest of her team when the alarm sounded, but knew that she had to back them up. Nowadays, for whatever the reason, the villains were getting more dangerous, which meant that their fights were getting harder and harder. Often times, they would appear in groups of three or even more, leaving each Titan to fend for him/herself in one on one battles. Raven would've loved to sit this one out, but... then her friends might blame her if someone got injured. Besides, it was her duty.

Gathering around the computer, the five Titans studied a map of the city, which had four blinking red dots on it. Robin slammed his fist into the keyboard. "Dr. Light, Slade, Gizmo, and Plasmus all at once," he was gritting his teeth in anger.

"We'll have to split up. I'll take Slade. You guys get the others," he replied and moved to leave, when Cyborg stopped him.

"Dude, when it comes to Slade, you get crazy. He's not the best match up for you, Robin."

"Shut up, Cy! I have to face him alone!"

"Friend Robin, friend Cyborg is right. You... should at least have some help if you face him. He is... too much for you to handle alone."

Starfire's words calmed Robin slightly. Especially since he was going to get to fight Slade, at least. "Alright, Cy, come with me! You guys get the others!"

"I'll take the little squirt," Beast Boy headed off to the west side of the city.

"And I shall defeat the Plasmus," Starfire spoke next, before turning to Raven. "Friend Raven?"

No reply. Starfire persisted and put a hand on Raven's shoulder. "Friend Raven, is everything okay? Nobody blames you for what happened earlier. You were... not yourself."

Raven could tell that Starfire was not quite telling the truth. The fear emanating from the girl was enough to choke them both. Being an empath really sucked at times. But still Raven gave her a curt nod before heading off to the dot in the north, Dr. Light.

* * *

"So, the dark one has come out to play," Dr. Light turned around from a yellow orb that he had just been attaching wires to. "But you will find that darkness will be banished in the presence of light!" He fired a bolt of light at Raven as he spoke the last word, but she blocked it with her shield.

Raven's eyes gleamed from under her hood as she dropped her arms. "Do we need to repeat what happened the first time we met?"

Dr. Light laughed pompously. "Silly child, I have grown far more powerful since then. You will find that your demonic powers are no match for the radiance of Dr. Light!" He blasted at her again and again and Raven gritted her teeth with the strain of keeping up her shield.

"I'm... not... a demon!" She hissed back at him.

The villain snorted. "You're not a demon? Then what was that thing you became the first time we met? Last I checked, humans don't have four glowing eyes or tentacles or use that type of dark magic."

"Shut up!" Raven's shield wavered as her emotional state began to fall apart. Rage boiled at the edges of her mind, as it often did nowadays.

Dr. Light continued his assault and eventually, Raven's shield broke entirely. "Demon though you may be, you are weak! Light banish you to the darkness from where you came, demon!" He blasted her once, sending her flying back, then twice after she landed, and then again and again, forming a massive crater in the ground. When the smoke from his attacks cleared, he was standing over Raven's still body.

_Yes... you are powerless, as he says. You are powerless without me, the demon inside you. Powerless without Rage. _Raven slowly regained consciousness, but found that she could not open her eyes. She sensed that she was bleeding in a lot of places - getting hammered with a bunch of lasers would do that - and tried to wipe away the blood dripping down a chin, but a foot stomped on her wrist and held her arm to the rocks on the ground.

"What's the matter, demon?" Dr. Light seemed to be enjoying his position of power; after all, Raven had humiliated him several times in the past already. "Not so strong anymore, huh?" He stomped on her ribcage, causing her to scream and spit up a shower of blood. "Why don't you say something? Cat got your tongue?"

He stomped on the side of her head, driving her face into the ground. "Let's see you get angry now, you monster," he continued taunting her, still sore about being traumatized by Raven's enraged, demonic form. "Why don't you get mad like you did the other times? It might just save you from the radiance of Dr. Light!" He attacked her again with a powerful bolt of yellow and she gasped out once more.

_You're making a fool of yourself. Give in to me. Let your demon take control. _Red Raven appeared in her mind, but it wasn't huge or menacing as it normally was. It held out its hand to her, toothy grin masking dark malevolence behind it. But that darkness was not directed at her. _Come, find comfort, release your emotions into me. And I can grant you power. _

The blue cloaked Raven in her mind closed her eyes and bent her head to the taller, crimson one. The sanguine one moved closer, eyes glinting.

The real, very unconscious, blue cloaked Raven was limp on the ground, eyes closed and mouth slightly agape with her hood still up and cloak spread wide open. Dr. Light stood over her body, looking down with a rather confused look on his face. The girl had hardly put up a fight at all; she hadn't even attacked him once and merely thrown up a couple shields to defend herself from him. Had his taunting really done all that?

"Dr. Light!" The villain heard a shout and turned around to meet Robin and Cyborg's angry faces staring out at him.

He rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, I thought you were busy with... the others. Didn't think you'd get here so fast."

Robin threw a Slade mask down at his feet. Everyone knew that that man loved using robot clones.

"Regardless, I'm curious as to why you're not on the ground, trembling in fear," Robin meant it in jest, judging by the tone of his voice, but Dr. Light laughed a little more maliciously than either of them had expected.

"Did you really think I was the same person I was before? Let me tell you something. There are bad things that are going to happen, boy," there was a dark undertone to his voice that was not too unlike the tone Slade used when speaking. _Something has happened to make him... more evil, _Robin thought to himself.

"We've already been through Hell and back," Robin drew out his staff and pointed it at Dr. Light. "There's nothing you can do to match that."

"True, it is not I who will be doing that. The Brotherhood has spoken of... someone else."

"Who?" Another voice appeared behind Dr. Light and he turned around, starting to get nervous. Three one one was not good odds for him. He looked at Beast Boy and sent a ray of light at him, evading the question.

"I always knew those Hive runts were no good. No wonder the Brotherhood of Evil never recruited them," he muttered to himself.

"You are not so great yourself," yet another voice appeared above him and he formed a shield of light, blocking several green starbolts. "What have you done with our... friend," Starfire hesitated very slightly before speaking the last word.

The nervousness disappeared from Dr. Light's face and was replaced with one of confidence. He stepped aside, revealing Raven's slouched body on the broken street behind him, bloodstains covering the rocks underneath her. To the Titans, it certainly looked like she was dead.

"Raven... no... no... Raven! Raven!" There were shouts all around, but she didn't stir.

"You bastard, when I get my hands on you..."

Dr. Light formed a shield as all of them attacked him simultaneously. "What are you going to do? Kill me? Just like I killed your friend... Raven?" He spoke the world mockingly. "Funny that you guys would let a demon be a superhero. Aren't demons supposed to be evil?"

"Raven may be a demon, but she is our friend!" Starfire began pounding on the shield, hands and eyes glowing green with light.

_I'm not a demon. I can't believe you would say that about me... _Rage drew her closer into its embrace.

"Hah. Last I heard, your relationship with your 'friend' was not so great. Didn't she attack you or something like that?"

"That has _nothing _to do with you, Dr. Light!" Robin beat on the shield with his staff as well. "Our problems are ours to deal with, not for you to poke fun at!"

_So I'm just a problem to him... _the darkness under her cloak was ominous.

Dr. Light faltered under the fury of their attacks and his shield broke. A moment later, a furious gorilla had punched him into a wall and was charging forward to attack again. "You can't attack me if you can't see!" Dr. Light's voice sounded from the smoke and a bunch of flares appeared in the gorilla's eyes, causing the green beast to transform back into a very dazed Beast Boy. He pushed a button on his suit and suddenly flew up into the air, supported by a disc of light beneath his feet. "Now, I will be seeing you later, Titans. Make sure you take good care of your demon for me."

_I... am... not... a... DEMON! _

Raven's eyes suddenly flew open and a gigantic, shadowy figure rose up, four red eyes and gleaming fangs underneath the shadow of its hood. The cloak opened slightly, revealing nothing but darkness and black tendrils appeared from inside it, wriggling towards the fleeing Dr. Light.

The villain gulped and threw several bolts of light at the demonic Raven but they failed to have any effect.

"You think I'm a demon? Well I'll show you just how much of a demon I really am!" Raven's voice was harsh, frenetic, as if she were possessed by madness. The tendrils of darkness wrapped around Dr. Light and dragged him back to the ground, holding him and preventing any movement.

"Afraid of the dark?" The voice was infused with almost a sadistic pleasure, and suddenly everyone knew that something was quite wrong with Raven, wrong even for her violent demonic form.

"Raven stop! Don't do it!" The Titans came rushing at her, but she turned and hissed at them, red eyes glaring at them angrily.

"Stay out of this!" The demon hissed, and more tentacles of darkness emerged from the ground, stopping them as well. Raven gave a frightening howl and the darkness hovered over Dr. Light almost like a guillotine, stopping in midair for just a moment before piercing the man's body in several places, ending his life instantly.

The Titans broke free of their restraints and warily eyed Raven, who had grown to a monstrous size with the amount of rage consuming her. Towering well above the buildings around them, the shadowy aura around her blotted out all light, casting them into a stygian penumbra.

"You think I'm a demon?" It hissed at them threateningly and seemed ready to pounce on them at any moment. "I'm... a demon?"

"Well, look at what you just did to that man!" Robin replied angrily. "What do you think separates us superheroes from becoming super villains? We don't kill people when defeating them! If we did go around murdering people like that, we'd be no better than them!"

"Rae, this is just going too far," Cyborg shook his head at her.

"I always knew you were a demon," Beast Boy glared at her, hands raised, taking a fighting stance. "But I never thought you'd do this. To us, your friends, or to anyone at all. I thought there was more to you than that."

"Friend Raven..." Starfire looked sad for a moment and turned away, trembling. Then she turned back, eyes glowing green. "If we must fight, then I will not hold back."

The demon howled and raged at them, as if some unbearable agony was possessing its mind. The darkness spread and attacked them in spears of inky blackness. The Titans dodged around, evading Raven's attacks, then counter attacking in barrages of blue, green, and explosive devices. None of them really wanted to get too close to the demon-Raven at the moment for fear of getting dragged underneath that cloak, so melee combat was out of the question. However, all of their attacks were merely met with growls and more darkness; nothing they did seemed to be able to harm her. After throwing another couple rounds of explosive disks at her, Robin decided to try to reason with her again. Fighting wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"Raven! I know you're in there! Snap out of it! We don't want to hurt you!"

"Too late for that," the demon hissed back, and focused all of her attacks on him. Robin leapt aside and tried again.

"Stop it Raven! You might be part demon, but that doesn't mean you have to follow the same path as your father! You don't have to be evil!"

_I'm... not evil... _Had she said that out loud?

"You're not, Rae! Nobody ever said you were evil!"

_I'm not... evil... I can't let my demon side take over. I am not a demon. _Her voice grew more firm in her own mind, and suddenly, red Raven emerged from the blue one, gasping and growling.

_You... rejected me, _it hissed at her. _How dare you reject me! I gave you power! I gave you control! You cannot hide me away forever, Raven! I am you! I am the latent energy within you! Nooooo! _It screamed as blue Raven raised her hand and engulfed it in dark magic. _Begone! And never come back! _

The real Raven was hunched over on the ground, facing away from her four teammates. She knew that she had messed up big time, that her little display of how out of control her demon was was really going to get her this time.

"Raven." Robin's voice was neutral, but she could sense a mixture of pity, fear, and anger off of him. She didn't turn around. "Raven," he repeated, and touched her shoulder. She turned around, red eyes blazing, tempestuous fury gathered around her in an aura of dread, and

* * *

"Noooo!" Raven woke up and screamed, sitting up, eyes wide with fear. Visions of her dream still swam across her eyes and she felt her body tense up. Her hands grasped her blankets tightly and she trembled slightly, looking down at the darkness. _It wasn't just a dream. I remember the day that happened. Two years ago... _She lay back, looking out into the vast void that of her room. _I left them behind. There was always that fear in me that they would not accept me, because I was a demon, because I was the daughter of something that would destroy the world. I... did not have the courage to face them after that. My only friends in the world thinking that I was evil, a mere demon... I could not bear that. _She suddenly felt a surge of rage and she pounded her fist on her bed, face contorted with anger. _And now look at me! If anyone knew I was alive, the whole world would be hunting me. Hunting the witch-devil that once nearly destroyed them. If they knew who I was... _

The rage left her and she relaxed again. _I can' dwell on it too much now or the demon will get out. Guess I better just get some rest. _She drifted slowly back off into fitful slumber.

* * *

Raven's eyes fluttered open and met with an vast, infinite darkness. She shook her head, a little confused, and looked again. Nothing. Just darkness. She tried moving around but found that her arms and legs were bound, so the best she could do was shuffle a bit on the ground into a more comfortable position.

"Hello?" She called out. "Anyone there?" Silence.

_Did someone kidnap me or something? _She frowned and focused on the ropes binding her limbs together. "Azarath metrion zinth-" before she could complete the incantation, something buzzed on the side of her head, and she cried out in pain when some sort of shock ran through her head. _Okay, so either these aren't your normal kidnappers, or I've been arrested by the Justice League... _Now that she thought about it, there was a small device on each of her temples that was probably designed to activate every time she tried to use her powers. She sighed. So she was stuck in some sort of limbo, completely helpless and all alone.

"Hello?" She tried again, this time speaking a bit louder. "Hellllloooo?"

_Hello, Raven. _A voice sounded from the darkness, not unlike the demonic one of her father, but it was completely genderless and far more menacing. She froze in place and felt something stir within her chest. An emotion she hadn't felt so strongly in a long time.

Eyes wide with fear, but still seeing nothing, her voice dropped to a whimper. "Who... are you?" No reply. She backed away as she felt the presence draw closer. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest and she felt beads of sweat break out over her face.

"Get away!" She suddenly screamed. "Robin! Robin! Star!" She instinctively called out to her old teammates; they were the ones who had saved her in the past, after all. "Anyone! Help!"

Suddenly, a circle of light shone on her, revealing her very frightened face, but nothing else. Raven took several deep breaths to calm herself down before looking in the direction of the light. It appeared that she was in some sort of large holding cell, with a door and window on the wall on the far side of the room. The light came from just underneath the rectangular window, where Robin suddenly appeared, evidently staring at her with some confusion.

"Robin," she spoke to him, wondering if he could hear her. "Why am I...?"

He looked at her, baffled, before his voice sounded over a speaker. "You... attacked us... and we've been searching for you for months. When we found you, you were laying unconscious in the middle of about a hundred people. And they were all dead."

Raven's eyes widened.

"We don't know if you did it... I hope you didn't... but they had no markings on them at all. No slash marks, no gunshot wounds, no indication they had been strangled or harmed physically at all. You're the only person that I know who could possibly kill at all. I'm sorry, Raven, but we have to assume the worst. Especially considering how you acted the last time we met.

Raven bit her lip, and Robin could see the fear and sadness in her eyes. He actually felt a pang of pity for her, even though she had tried to kill him the last time they saw each other.

"Can you... maybe let me out of here and at least let me shower and stuff?" Her voice crackled through a speaker into the room Robin was watching her from.

Robin shook his head. "I can't let you do that," his voice was firm now. "I don't know what you've been doing exactly, but everyone thinks you're a criminal now. None of us wants to believe it, Raven, but so far, it really would seem like you have... left behind your life as a hero. And there's nothing I can do to stop you from being thrown in prison. For that many murders, you'll probably be sentenced for life."

"Good thing I don't age," she murmured back. She looked at his confused face. "Half-demon, remember? My demon blood makes me immortal in that respect."

Robin nodded. He didn't know what to feel after seeing his old teammate like this. She seemed so... normal, well normal for Raven that was. Her monotone hadn't really changed much nor had her appearance, except that her hair was now longer. Her apathetic face was much the same as it once had been, although her eyes still shimmered when she felt strong emotions. _What has she been up to? _He wondered to himself. _She doesn't seem like the type to be a serial killer or anything, but her demonic side... She even tried to kill us, her friends! And we didn't even provoke her. I'm sorry, Raven, but you've really just gotten out of control. Maybe we can help you once you've proved to us that you can control your inner demon. I don't think you realize this, but it hurts all of us to lose a former friend and have her attack us... All we want to do is help you. Even if we are scared of you sometimes. You know, I always thought of you as not just a friend, but-_

Robin was brought out of his thoughts by a sudden scream. "Raven? What's wrong?" He looked into the window and saw her backing out of the light.

"Robin!" Raven screamed out, her voice panicked and terrified. "Robin! Get me out of here!"

Robin frowned. "I already explained that I can't do that, and you know it Rae-"

"Robin!" She screamed again and the circle of light illuminating her body went out. Now sensing that something was wrong, Robin tried to peer into the darkness to look for where Raven might be.

"Raven? What's wrong?" He tried flipping on all the other lights, but they all failed to turn on. "Raven!" His voice betrayed his fear, fear for her safety. Despite the fact that she was possibly a criminal and had attacked him, he still didn't want anything bad to happen to her. "Raven!" He repeated. There was some buzzing from the speaker, but after a moment, that went out too and it was dead silent.

And then he heard a bloodcurdling scream through the wall. Raven's. _Damn it, _he pounded his fist on a nearby wall and pressed the control to open the door, but nothing happened. Robin gritted his teeth and tried pulling the door open by force but found that he could not make it budge at all. He tried kicking it open, he tried blowing it up with his explosive discs, but it was impermeable. Another scream sounded, and he rushed to the window, looking out into what seemed to be an empty void. And then a red light flickered for just a moment, revealing a towering, shadowy figure that resembled Raven with her hood up, only it had a wicked scythe in its hand. And Raven was backed into a corner, the terror etched all over her face. The light flickered again and the giant shadow was closer to her. And each time the crimson light flickered it drew closer and closer until it was standing right above her. _  
_

The light went dead and Raven could sensed the scythe coming down at her body and there was nothing she could do but let out a scream, and

* * *

She screamed and sat up, breathing erratically. Sweat ran down her face and her heart pounded against her ribs. Raven put a hand to the back of her neck. Closing her eyes, she breathed in and out deeply. And then pounded a fist on her bed, teeth bared into a snarl. _  
_

"Will these stupid dreams just go away! I don't need to relive this every... stupid... moment... of my life!" She pounded her fist again and felt the building shake. Her emotions were out of control and it was causing her powers to do weird things.

_Okay, calm down. No point in getting angry at this. Don't want to let the demon out again. _She sat there and breathed smoothly. "Azarath metrion zinthos," she spoke softly and began levitating. "Azarath metrion zinthos. Azarath-" She bit her lip, a little too hard, and felt the blood flow down her chin. _I wish my meditation would work like it used to. No matter how much I meditate nowadays, it doesn't seem to do anything. _She groaned in frustration and decided to just get up, even though she had only gotten a couple hours of sleep. Pulling her cloak around her, she stood up and walked over to her window.

She had decided to relocate to Gotham after all the bad luck she had had in Jump city, and despite the fact that Gotham had one of the most powerful members of the Justice League protecting it, she felt relatively safe. The old city had plenty of abandoned buildings and a massive underground sewer system, and as long as she didn't do something stupid, it was unlikely that the Batman would ever come after her.

Right now, it was still dark outside, although the full moon did provide a bit of bluish light that seemed oddly welcoming to her. She phased through the window and landed in the street below, still looking up at the night sky. And then a shadow passed across the roofs of the buildings overhead. It looked down as it saw Raven's figure sitting against a wall, arms reached around her legs, hood raised over her head. Raven looked up right as it looked down, and they made eye contact for what seemed like an eternity. Time seemed to slow, and she found herself transfixed, and slightly frightened, by that dark gaze. Then the Batman looked away and back towards whatever he was chasing. He had sensed something... unsettling... and something familiar about that girl, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Maybe he'd look into her later. For now, he had to focus on chasing that weird shadow that he had seen earlier. The thing had already killed 38 people, and the last time Batman had engaged it, it had proven to have some skill in hand to hand combat. And judging by its appearance and his own senses, Batman could tell that it wasn't just any normal human; this had to be some magical creature or even a demon. It was bound to have other powers as well. But it was his job to protect the city at all costs, and no matter how formidable the enemy was, he always brought them down.

Suddenly, the shadow disappeared from his vision and he looked around, body tensed, ready for a fight. He jumped up as a dark hand appeared out of the building beneath him and kicked back at it. The... whatever it was... snarled and began rising out of a pool of darkness, a figure in a dark cloak, with a scythe in hand. _Is this that girl I saw earlier? They certainly look alike. _Then Batman found himself staring up into a figure that towered to maybe twice his height, something with many red eyes peering out from the darkness, and a vicious mouth filled with sharp teeth snapping at him from under the hood. _Just kidding. _He prepared himself and dodged the next scythe blow before kicking the thing's hand that held the scythe and kicking it backwards once again. Again they engaged, and again the Batman beat it back easily, although it seemed unfazed. _But if that's all it's got, I'll be able to beat it easily and discover just what this thing is. _

Another engage, and this time the shadowy figure broke away, visibly hurt. It clutched its arm and roared at him before plunging its scythe into the building. It used it to tear open a dark streak on the roof, a portal to somewhere, and several other identical figures rose up, all brandishing their scythes at him. Batman gritted his teeth. Dodging this way and that, he counterattacked whenever he could, driving a couple of them back. This was going to be a long, difficult fight.

* * *

Raven sensed the portal open from her place on the ground not too far away. She stood up instantly, tensing up, recognizing the power behind the portal. It was the same one she had sensed when she was imprisoned, that demonic presence that seemed somehow akin to her father's power, but not quite the same either. She focused her powers further, and she could sense Batman's determination not too far away. Around him she could sense the power in several other beings, beings filled with... fear? Not just fear, a strange emptiness inside of them, a void filled with nothing but fear and obedience. She shook her head. Well, whatever these things were, even if they gave off the same power signature as the thing inside the portal and the thing she had encountered before, they were a lot weaker. The Batman could handle them. _Besides, I don't want to get involved with him, or things could turn out ugly. I'm still not ready to die yet. _

She hid deeper inside her hood, feeling nothing but dread in her heart. She just wasn't used to sitting idly by as some supervillain was terrorizing people. Despite her demon background... _I still feel compelled to help people. With great power comes great responsibility, isn't that what they said? I'm responsible for saving people. After all, it's the least I can do to atone for what I've done to this world before. Besides, it does feel good when I help people. I really should try to do more to help. Although the person in question this time is Batman... won't he just lock me up? _She stared at her pale grey hands. _I am a demon after all... _She touched her forehead to her knees and curled up into a ball.

Raven focused harder on the fight and found that she could make out the little details as well, seeing images in her mind of Batman ducking under a scythe swing and kicking one of the ghoulish figures back, jumping another one and slamming two of the shadows together... Determination and strength practically radiated off the man._ Well, I've grown a lot stronger these two years and that does affect my empathic powers, so of course I'd be able to sense his emotions more. But still, this guy's willpower is ridiculous. Even without superpowers or anything, he's willing to dive fearlessly into a bunch of demons that he knows nothing about, just to protect his city. I wish I was that brave... _A sudden twang of pain in her mind drew her out of her thoughts and she focused in on the battle again. Images of more portals opening flitted through her mind, and suddenly she stood up. The Batman... the _Batman__... _who she had thought was invulnerable or something, had been wounded. She focused on the battle again. It had just been a slight wound on his arm, but now there was an ever increasing number of those shadow things. And Batman had no means of closing those portals. She knew it. Something tore at her heart, a unbearable pain that was driving her to go help him, to fight evil as she once had, to try to regain something similar to what her life had once been. But her feet would not move. She struggled with herself, standing very still in the moonlight, head bent down towards the ground. She sensed Batman break a hole through the circle of shadows surrounding him and run past them before turning to face his adversaries. _Is he insane? A chance to get away but he turns back to fight instead? He knows he might die!  
_And then she felt her own fear rise as she sensed the creatures draw up some otherworldly power in themselves... _they're preparing for some type of huge attack. He's going to die if that hits him! __I have to..._

* * *

Batman sensed the creatures draw up some sort of power inside themselves, but was too preoccupied with fighting off the ones that were still battling him in melee combat. He gritted his teeth and beat them back in a flurry of punches and kicks before ducking under another scythe blow. And then his eyes narrowed as he saw the shadows release some sort of black energy beam towards him. It absorbed all the creatures that happened to be standing in its path and Batman knew that if he was hit, it was all over. Grunting, he punched away another couple creatures before trying to leap aside, but found that they had grabbed a hold of his ankles.

Suddenly, a huge wave of dark energy blocked the path of the beam and the girl he had seen earlier appeared out of a black portal behind him. She raised her arms and dark energy encased the creatures holding him down, tearing them apart. They made eye contact, and he knew instinctively that she was not a threat like these demonic beasts, no matter how dark or powerful she seemed. He turned back to the creatures and leaped into the fray, his determination unwavering as he took them down. The girl behind him shielded his body in her dark energy as he fought through them, preventing any injures, before rising into the air, hands charged with blackness.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" Beams of her power flew down towards each portal and they began to close, causing the shadowy creatures to roar at them. Her voice seemed very familiar.

Now she was fighting beside him, tearing the things apart with her powers while he guarded her back, and eventually, they were all gone, destroyed without a trace of anything remaining. Her dark energy left his body - he was grateful for that, it had felt quite cold and had a disturbing feel to it - and he turned to face her. But she was gone. He smirked. He had placed a tracking device on her cloak when she had first appeared. Perhaps he would pay her an unexpected visit in a few minutes, after he had finished searching the area for anything useful.

* * *

"Why did you run?" Raven froze and pulled up her hood as she heard the voice behind her. It was low and hoarse with a dark tone about it... _Batman! _She didn't respond.

"Who are you?" She felt his presence behind her draw closer and she shivered. The Batman really was quite intimidating.

"Why do you need to know?" She murmured.

"I need to know when a powerful magic wielder enters my city using magic similar to those shadow things that have been killing Gotham's citizens."

"I'm not associated with them. I helped you fight them off, didn't I?"

She sensed him nod. "But that's not enough. You may not be a threat now, but I can't risk the chance of you becoming a threat later. You _will _tell me who you are."

Raven didn't move. _I wonder if I can take him in a fight. I've always held back before to prevent my powers from accidentally killing anyone, so I don't really know what my true strength is. Maybe if I can just tie him down with energy and escape... But he somehow tracked me here, so he'd only come after me later. I'll have to search my clothes later. _

"I can tell you are thinking about fighting," came the dark voice from behind her, and she nearly jumped.

"Empathy is supposed to be my power, not yours."

Batman didn't reply. Raven sighed and turned around, violet eyes gleaming at him from under her hood. He looked at her carefully, as if judging her.

"I remember you," he spoke suddenly. A small smirk appeared on his face. "Robin told me all about you."

Raven tensed, but sensed only amusement from him. He didn't intend to attack her. She relaxed, but still backed away, just to be safe. He didn't seem to care, and simply moved closer.

"Next time you pick a disguise, you might want to do more than just change the color of your cloak, Raven. For someone who's supposed to be so intelligent, that wasn't so smart."

She shrugged. "I didn't intend to be seen by anyone who might recognize me. So... what are you going to do with me?"

"As much as I'd like to tell your team that you're here..." he could see that she was visibly frightened by that statement, "I won't. I heard you... aren't exactly welcome there at this time."

She nodded meekly and he was puzzled that she looked ashamed as well.

"How are you reading my emotions so easily?" Raven demanded. "My team was never able to do that so well."

"How are you reading my thoughts so easily?" He retorted. "You shouldn't be trying to get into my mind in the first place."

She blushed slightly. Batman sighed. "Regardless, I'm willing to offer you a place to stay. You'll probably find it much more comfortable than," he gestured around to her dirty room, which was in the middle of an abandoned building, "here."

"To keep an eye on me."

"So you are as sharp as Robin said you were," he replied nonchalantly.

Raven shrugged, but then narrowed her eyes at him, faintly suspicious. "He told you what I was, didn't he?"

Batman nodded. The purple haired girl sighed, but gave in. "Whatever. Lead the way."

* * *

"Eat. You look like you haven't had a good meal in months."

Raven stared at the Batman, who had his arms folded and was staring back at her from across the floor of the Batcave. "That's because I haven't," she replied, before taking a bite of chicken. "I had to manage money left in my accounts after I left the Titans. There's not much left anymore. Besides, where are we?"

"My home base," came the reply.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Obviously. You can't tell me more than that?"

"My secret identity wouldn't be so secret if I did," he smirked at her. He waited patiently for her to finish eating, and after she had finished half of what he had put in front of her and pushed her plate away, he walked forward. "Done already?"

"Never really been a big eater anyway."

He nodded. "Well, I'll bring a bed for you. However, you are not allowed to go exploring. There are cameras all over this place, and if I do happen to catch you... Well, you understand, don't you?"

Raven nodded. There was an awkward silence in which she stared up at him, an unspoken question in her eyes. Batman waited for the question to come from her mouth, but patience was not something he was known for. "Well?"

"So... does this mean that I can go out and fight crime with you?"

Batman's eyes seemed to pierce into her soul. _There's no way this guy's human, _Raven noted quietly to herself. _There's no way anyone could be so... intimidating. Or have such willpower. _

"I am human, thank you very much," he noted with a small smile on his face, guessing at what she was thinking. He had heard that many times from all the other metahumans he had met. "But I suppose you can. You've proven yourself to me once."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Raven's face - the first she had made in a _very _long time.

* * *

_So she's finally shown her face again. And in Gotham of all places. It's a good thing I still have intelligence there, if no real influence anymore. Doesn't matter now. I wonder how Robin will react when he hears who his new friend has been consorting with. _The eye behind the black and orange mask narrowed very slightly, indicating amusement from the man. _I suppose I shall give Robin a call, but only after I am done here. _He turned and pushed a button, blowing up a bridge behind him. Several cars fell off of it, including an armored car with Prison Transport marked on it. The man walked over to it and kicked open the back doors, revealing a man sleeping on the floor, a gigantic stone creature, and what appeared to be a simple computer chip. Shaking the sleeping man awake and reactivating the computer chip, he now had a gigantic purple goo monster and an electrical one facing him as well.

"Well, you know the drill," he waved a hand at Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock, who all rose up with roars before thundering off to wreak havoc in the city.

_Ah, it's great to be alive. Now, time to tell Robin about his old friend..._

* * *

A/N: Again, I apologize for the slow start, but I swear it'll go faster later on!

On a side note, I haven't really decided any pairings for this story, so everyone is welcome to suggest parings in reviews, and I'll probably consider the one that makes the most sense or is most convincing for this story (except BB/Rae, which is one that I don't really like) (And no matter what it may seem like, Batman is not hooking up with Raven, I just felt like they had similar personalities)

One more note - since there is a time skip in this story, some character stats will be given below just for reference

Robin/Nightwing - 21 years old, 5'11"

Starfire - 20 , 6'2"

Raven - 20 , 5'6" (5'11" is the stat given by the show, but if you look at her height in comparison to the others, it doesn't really make sense - she just doesn't seem like she should be 5'11")

Cyborg - 24 , 6'6"

Beast Boy - 19 , 5'10" (growth spurt!)

Terra - 20 , 5'8"

Please leave me your thoughts and hopefully I will update soon if I can get down to writing the next chapter!


	2. Convergence I

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or the Justice League or DC Comics or anything related to them or such.

Just a couple notes:

**Midnight Lost**: I think your idea is very interesting. Certainly the heroes won't be winning every battle - that would be too boring, wouldn't it? As for RavenxSlade, sorry, but unfortunately the plot I have in my head doesn't allow for that pairing, so it probably won't happen (unless I decide to change the plot).

As for all my other reviewers, your praise/suggestions are very much appreciated!

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

The alarm sounded in Titan's tower and five teenagers were soon gathered around a monitor with a police officer's face on it. A man dressed in black with the emblem of a blue bird on his chest motioned for his teammates to come closer.

"Nightwing," the officer said. "We've had another murder here. Worse than the last one." The officer turned the camera and revealed a body hanging from the side of a building. "Give us a closer view," Nightwing replied. The officer obliged and the camera moved closer.

Where there should've been a face there was nothing but a blank expanse of pale skin with a single flame etched into the muscle and bone beneath. The rest of the body had been dismembered so completely that it could be seen that there were no internal organs left, and the arms and legs seemed to be completely deflated as well. It was like there was nothing left of the man except for his head and skin. Starfire turned away, Cyborg groaned, and Terra and Beast Boy held each other's hand tightly. Nightwing glanced back at the fair haired girl. Right around the time they had found a way to reverse the effects of her being stoned, there was something dark that had appeared in Jump City, something menacing, a demonic evil. _Not that Terra is the one doing this. It was also around the time that I caught Raven and saw that weird shadow thing that tried to kill her. _He frowned. _Well, she got away somehow, even though Cyborg built that thing to stop her powers. Could this thing and her be related? _

They didn't have much information on this "Wraith" as they were calling it, but from what they had seen, it could kill without physically wounding anyone in any manner at all. Some of its victims appeared to be completely unharmed - except for the fact that they were dead - but others were mutilated and had very strange things done to them, like this one. Was this Wraith trying to send a message? What was it doing?

"Any sign of... other body parts... anywhere?"

The camera moved around, revealing nothing but bloodstains everywhere. "Nothing," the officer replied. "Just this strange sight. We haven't even been able to identify the body at all. The body just seems to have been... torn apart by some dark magic or something."

"We'll be right there."

* * *

Nightwing frowned as he surveyed the scene in front of him. The blood was still warm, so this man had died very recently, but nobody had seen exactly who... or what... had done this. _It's like this every time. Nobody gets a glimpse of the murderer, but they all say that there are chilling shadows every time, like there was some demon hidden within them. Although I did hear this report about there being red eyes within the darkness. _He came out of his thoughts as Cyborg tapped him on the shoulder.

"I ran some analysis on the blood and the man's... well whatever was left of his body."

"And?"

Cyborg frowned. "I got a match. Joseph Tourner, age 23, works at the pizza shop down the road and lives in an apartment alone. Seems like your average young man, no special reason to go after him."

Nightwing nodded. "That's part of the problem. These killings have been completely random. If there were some pattern to the victims or to the locations even, we could track down the killer, but this... whatever it is... seems to be murdering just for the sake of doing it. Irrationally, almost."

"Yeah but who has the kind of power to kill people without physically harming them? Even the magic users of the Justice League usually have to blast someone with fire or something to kill," Terra stared at the body, deep in thought. "The only people I can really think of that are capable of doing this are Zatanna and J'onn J'onzz. Zatanna doesn't match the descriptions of the murder situations - she doesn't use shadows. Neither does J'onn J'onzz. Besides, I doubt any of them have the time to come to Jump City to do this anyway."

"Yeah, kinda hard to imagine that the Justice League would do this..." Beast Boy was scratching the back of his head. "Maybe a demon? Or maybe some new villain moved into town from somewhere else."

Nightwing shook his head. "I don't know of any villains who are capable of this either, other than demons or gods. A god wouldn't bother committing such petty acts, so that leaves demons... Maybe a harbinger of some sorts?"

Suddenly, a police officer came running over to them. "Sorry for interrupting, but we have just received a report stating that Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock have somehow gotten free of their prison transport. They're headed for the financial district right now."

"Slade again," Nightwing hissed, knowing that that mastermind villain would be behind this. "Star, BB, Terra, go stop them. Cy and I will finish investigating here. If there's any sign of Slade, call my communicator and I'll be right there." _Not that he'll show up. It's not like him to go out fighting with his monsters anyway. _

The three of them nodded at him before flying off. He turned back to the crime scene. "Well, Cy, got any ideas?"

Cyborg shrugged. "I've looked through all the known databases. Nobody in the League matches up with the one doing this. And out of all the villains, demons would probably be the best match." He paused. "But Raven would be able to do something like this..."

Nightwing frowned. "I doubt that she would have done this. She has... killed before... but it's not like she would dismember people so gruesomely. Something else is behind this, maybe another servant of Trigon or something."

"I don't know about that," Cyborg knelt down and stared closely at the scene. "She can get pretty loony when she turns into a demon. But, I suppose you're right. She wouldn't go this far. Besides, I don't think she's even in Jump anymore, otherwise we would've seen her sometime." He sighed. "So we're out of clues?"

"For now. The only thing these murders have in common is that they have all occurred during the night and in dark alleys. Not that that means much. Most murders on the streets happen like that. Easier to get away."

"Well whatever is doing this, we won't catch it just by sitting here. Let's go help our friends," Cyborg came up and put a hand on Nightwing's shoulder. The dark haired man frowned for a moment before standing up.

"Fine. Let's go."

* * *

Raven sat on the edge of a skyscraper, eyes closed. A dark silhouette against the moonlight, her cloak blew about her in a nonexistent wind. She put her hood up, and clutched her cloak about her, shuddering slightly. _It's cold..._ _It snows here more than it does in Jump city. _Raven looked up into the sky, feeling the first signs of winter drop onto her face, prickling slightly on impact but melting quickly enough. She thought that she rather liked the snow. She closed her eyes again, focusing on a vast area around her, allowing her empathic power to search for any strong emotions that might be signs of an attack. But there was nothing she could detect. Raven looked down at her hands, drawing her sleeves back slightly.

She looked at the faded scars on her arms and wrists, remembering how suicidal she had been when she found out that there was no way to stop Trigon from coming to Earth. _I... had tried to kill myself in hopes that maybe I wouldn't become the portal, but every time I tried, something inside me prevented me from going all the way. Probably his influence over my mind. Of course he would want to protect his portal. _She gritted her teeth.

_And I had tried to kill myself again after I lost control so many times and attacked my... _her eyes closed. _Well they're not my friends anymore. And I'm not dead even with all these cuts. __Although I almost did bleed to death several times... _She opened her eyes again. _I guess it's pointless to dwell on the past. I'm still here. Everyone is still here. __The only difference is that now they hate me. _Raven clenched her hands, trembling. _I can't believe I lost control like that. I... I attacked my friends, who helped me so much throughout all the years I was with them. Who protected me when I was in trouble, and even tried to help me with my emotions... And I almost killed them._

_I really messed up big time, didn't I... _

_Now everyone thinks I'm a monster... a demon... the demon I never wanted to become. And I suppose they're right. _Raven looked up into the sky again. _Life is depressing, isn't it? You work all your life to save people, to fight for justice... for good... and you still turn out to be a demon in the end. I was so afraid that they would betray me, that they wouldn't accept me. And I was the one who ended up betraying them._

_And I said that I wasn't a demon... Right... _

A sudden feeling of panic brought her out of her thoughts. Raven focused hard for a moment, searching the surrounding area for the source of the fear and found it. A man holding a crowbar, advancing on a woman in a dark alleyway. Just your average mugging during the night. Breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't something worse, Raven teleported behind the man and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.

* * *

Slade smirked underneath his mask as he stared at his many paneled computer screens. He took in the sight of Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock getting beaten down - the Titans were getting pretty powerful, he would have to start watching his step - and watched as the three monsters were rounded up and subdued. _No matter. They have been a decent distraction. Now I have some time to complete my work here before they catch up to me. _

He got out of his computer chair and looked to the ground behind him, where a large symbol was drawn on the ground. In blood.

"You know, Robin, or Nightwing as you like to call yourself now, if Raven was still on your team, you might have discovered this before I did. But it's too late for that now, isn't it."

Slade waited patiently for a few minutes, merely standing there staring at the symbol. And then a shadowy figure rose out of it, a dark figure that was surprisingly small, maybe a head shorter than Slade was, covered in a black cloak, face hidden underneath the shadows cast by its hood.

"They call you the Wraith," Slade spoke as it rose out of the ground. The figure turned its head and looked around at its surroundings, as if wary of a trap. Slade cleared his voice and continued. "I don't know exactly... what... you are, but I do know that your movement is bound by this symbol." He gestured below him to the blood on the ground. The figure turned back to him and seemed to nod.

"In fact, the only places you can move at all are within a certain radius around the symbol's center. Now, I realize you have a symbol that you carry around with you, but I also know that you can instantly teleport to anywhere else where there's one drawn," he paused, as if to wait for a response, but the figure was silent. "I'll take that as a yes. Anyway, I can offer you a deal. Help me with my plan, and I can help you get around to wherever you need to go. Think about it. I can place these symbols anywhere you need me to and you can literally teleport everywhere you need to go instead of having to do it yourself. And I can offer you a home base in case you are threatened."

The figure finally spoke, its voice toneless and genderless. "I will follow you, but only because it serves my purpose."

Slade nodded. "Very well, now I suppose you'll want to hear my plan..."

"I know your plan."

_So this one is a telepath. Looks like I won't be able to hide anything from it. It will know everything that I am thinking. _"Someone approaches," the figure rasped out as the door to Slade's lair was kicked open.

"Slade!" Nightwing jumped through the doorway, closely followed by Cyborg, Beast Boy, Terra, and Starfire. And then they all stopped as they saw the figure in the dark cloak. "Raven?"

"I am the one you call the Wraith," it hissed at them. Nothing showed underneath its hood, not even the shape of a face or eyes. Nightwing's eyes narrowed. "Well, whatever you are, we're bringing you down!"

"Patience, Nightwing," Slade murmured and held up his hands, but was forced to duck as Nightwing came down to attack him.

The Wraith flew up past the other Titans and out the door, fleeing from the fight, leaving behind nothing but an unsettling chill. "You guys go after him! I'll deal with Slade!" Nightwing yelled out, and turned back to his opponent.

"But can you handle-"

"Go!" The four of them pursued the fleeing shadow, leaving Nightwing to face Slade alone.

They fought back and forth, evenly matched, neither able to really injure the other very much. Blocking a few kicks and punches, Slade backed away and leapt onto one of the many gears in his base, creating some distance between him and his adversary.

"Nightwing," he spoke again, unperturbed. "Listen to me for a moment."

"I've made that mistake too many times," Nightwing leapt up to attack him and they exchanged a few blows again.

"I know where your old friend is."

"What old friend? I don't have-" the man's eyes widened after he realized. "Raven?" He jumped back and eyed the villain warily. "What do you know about her?"

"Much more than you think, Nightwing. Much more," there was an ominous tone in his voice. "She is in Gotham right now, with your old caretaker-"

"You lie!" Nightwing jumped forward and attacked again.

"Now, now, why would I lie about something like that? What purpose would that serve?" Slade seemed surprisingly relaxed even against Nightwing's powerful assault.

"There's no way the Batman would allow that _demon_ into his city, much less consort with her. She might not be a villain, but she's also not someone he would trust to be in his city."

"I suppose Batman _acquainted _himself with her to keep an eye on her. You know what they say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Besides, what about her is getting you so worked up, huh?" Slade threw a powerful punch at Nightwing, sending him staggering back. He spoke in between each blow, pushing the hero further and further back. "Is it the fact that you almost killed each other and lost one of your closest friends? Is it the fact that she has been inside your head and knows all your secrets? And might betray you?"

"How did you kno-" He was cut off as Slade kicked him in the stomach.

"I know a lot of things, Nightwing. I know that you were always jealous of your old mentor because he could do everything better than you. Maybe you're just... jealous... that your old friend managed to find a better home in his house than in yours."

"Shut up! I know him better than anyone else! There's no way he'd let someone that dangerous and unstable run free in Gotham!" Nightwing fought back, hard, and sent Slade flying into the shadows. But moments later, the villain appeared again, unfazed.

"My dear Nightwing, you don't know just how dangerous she is," and there was a hint of dark implication in his voice. "But go pursue her if you want. Just be wary of... upsetting... the Batman. Wouldn't want to have a fight with him now, would you?" Slade laughed and retreated back into the shadows before disappearing altogether. Nightwing gritted his teeth, but he knew from his past experiences that chasing the man into unknown territory was... not the best idea.

Nightwing slammed a fist against the wall and pulled out his communicator. "Titans! Did you manage to catch up to the Wraith?"

Cyborg's face appeared on screen. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "It didn't seem to want to fight us, so it just ran. Thing is damn fast."

A sigh in response. "Whatever. Let's just go back to the tower."

* * *

"It's not good for such a young woman to be brooding so much," Batman's voice sounded behind Raven, who didn't even bother to turn around. It had never been that easy to sneak up on her, and with her improved telepathic powers, she could sense almost anything in a 10m radius of her. Of course, it was also partially because the Batman had a certain knack for sneaking up on people, so it wasn't quite as surprising when his voice appeared out of nowhere. At least to her.

Raven pulled her hood down, allowing the full moon's light to shine down upon her face. "I'm not brooding."

"Whatever you say," he replied. "Get any action tonight?"

"Just a couple muggers and thieves. Nothing big."

Batman nodded slowly. "Other than that incident with those... whatever they were... it's been very peaceful in Gotham. Too peaceful. Something is amiss."

As if the universe wanted to prove him right, an unsettling breeze blew past them, carrying with it a sinister feeling that chilled her to her bones. It was almost irritating how Batman never seemed to be wrong. That guy's instincts were... incredible.

Raven twisted a lock of violet hair in her fingers; ominous things always made her fidgety. She looked up from the rooftop of the skyscraper, thinking about the internal conflict that she had had earlier. Something _was _amiss, only inside of her heart. She felt the torment inside of her chest, but she ruthlessly crushed it, trying to absolve herself of all emotion. She would not let herself think about that horrible feeling she had had earlier.

"Is something wrong?" The dark knight inquired, looking at the girl's too pale face and the dark circles beneath her eyes.

Raven gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the unbearable pain eating away at her soul. _Why? I thought I had gotten over this before... I thought that I had accepted that I was a demon. I thought that I accepted that I would never be able to be a hero like the others because of that. Because of my temper and my lack of self control... I knew that I was miserable, a complete and utter failure, I acknowledged that! So why is it now, two years later, that it still eats away at my heart? I thought that I would have recovered after all this time... _She suddenly became aware of Batman's penetrating gaze on her, and she looked away, ashamed.

"Sorry," Raven whispered. She tried, desperately tried, to throw up her mental barriers to block out all emotion, but failed. The agony burning at her soul simply would not go away. Raven clutched her chest over her heart, where the physical manifestation of her distress was the strongest. She closed her eyes again, willing herself to stay strong. She would not show weakness. She couldn't. She had to remain in control, she couldn't let her emotions overtake her. She would deal with this herself. _  
_

"It must have been hard," Batman's voice was softer than before, a gentle whisper. Raven's eyes flew open, and suddenly she felt something well up inside her heart. She fell to her knees and clutched her chest harder than before. "You are not alone. I have seen my parents, my entire family, my closest friends all killed in front of my own eyes. I know the pain of loss just as much as you do. You don't have to deal with this yourself."

"You don't know what it's like to almost have killed those close friends. My only friends in the world, and I just had to lose control of myself. I just had to give in and prove myself to be evil, a devil," her face contorted, but she managed to hold in the tears. "I'm just a piece of shit, aren't I? I don't deserve to live. The world would've been better off without me a long time ago."

"You saved this world from your father. You've saved many peoples' lives. You fight evil while risking your own life. You're no demon, Raven-"

"I brought my father into this world to begin with. I've killed many people as well. And I've proven that I'm not incorruptible. I just... The only reason why I haven't killed myself yet is to atone for all the horrible things I've done. So that maybe... maybe they will forgive me. And then I can die in peace."

"You're too young to be talking about death. And you've done too many good things to call yourself anything less than a hero. No matter what people may think, you still stand up for justice and goodness."

"And what is this justice and goodness that you speak of?" Raven shot back at him. "I was born in a world with different morals than yours. I no longer have qualms about taking a life in order to protect people. There is _nothing _I would not do to fight true evil, like the evil that was my father. But you... you're different." A small smile came across her face. "If I remember, you operate with only one rule, and that rule is-"

"Never kill anyone. But I will admit that there is a gradient of good and evil. To lie, to cheat and steal, to manipulate others, even to kill in the name of justice... in order to erase the world's evils..." he brooded over that thought. "If you were to do that, then what would separate you from the villains?"

Raven shrugged. "I suppose that's why I'm a demon. You know," her voice was soft, reminiscing. "I always thought that it was weird how strongly Robin - Nightwing - felt about justice. No crime went unpunished, even the most minor theft or break in. No matter what, that person was a villain and that villain would have to be captured. It must be nice to have such a strong sense of justice. To know that what you are fighting for is right. It hurts... It's confusing when you try to fight for something but you don't even know that what you fight for is right anymore. What is justice? What is evil? Can we truly say... Can I say that I still fight for what's right even if I help villains in the process and kill people?"

"Villains have a twisted sense of justice," Batman replied smoothly. Raven positively hated how self assured, how confident he sounded. Mostly because she couldn't be like that herself. "But you know, and everyone knows in their hearts the difference between good... and evil. Working with a 'villain' is fine as long as they see what good truly is in the end. I know from experience." Catwoman... Selena Kyle... came to the front of his mind, but he shoved that thought down. Too late, though, he caught sight of Raven's smirk. He shot her a glance and she quieted immediately.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Her voice was soft again. "How a person can kill, manipulate, and steal, and still be a morally good person at heart. _Can_ being the keyword. But you and me, we're different. You're a hero, you fight for your incorruptible sense of justice, and no matter if people say your methods are... questionable... you still do what's right. I'm just..." the smile dropped from her face, "a monster." The pain was back, tearing at her heart. "Why are you even helping me? Aren't you supposed to detain demons like me? Or... maybe you could just get rid of me? I'm tired of this life... I'm tired of being the devil that I am. Please, just put me out of my misery... please..."

Batman stared down at her for a moment before backhanding her across the face. Raven fell back to the rooftop and didn't bother rising. "Don't you dare say that again," he rasped down at her. "Heroes who fight in the name of good, for truth and morality, they are not permitted to call themselves demons. Or want to kill themselves."

"But-"

"No buts, Raven," his voice was softer. "Whether you have, in the past, done wrong or even done evil, that doesn't matter anymore. The only thing that matters are your feelings now of wanting to help crush those evils. You are a hero. And the truly amazing thing is, you are a hero who has risen from the depths of Hell, from being innately an avatar of destruction to one who fights for righteousness. It is more than most others can boast."

Raven lay there in silence, contemplating his words. The agony torturing her soul was still there, just as strong as it had been before, but she also felt a bit reassured as well. At least there was someone out there who was looking out for her.

"Come," he offered a hand to the trembling girl. "Let's go back and get some rest. It's been a long night."

She turned and he helped her up before they teleported back to Batman's hideout.

* * *

_But the world doesn't work out so easily, does it? You're a demon. _Rage sneered at her within her mind.

Raven opened her eyes and found herself on a large rocky plateau, surrounded by several other Ravens all wearing different colored cloaks. She looked into the sky, which was a dark void dotted with specks of red, and then back around to find the sanguine cloaked Raven who had said that. They made eye contact.

_Rather cynical, are we? _Rude usually was on Rage's side, but not today it seemed. Or maybe she had been replaced by Sarcasm. _Sure, she's a demon. That's why she just let her father take over this dimension without fighting back. That's why she never stands up for other people and saves them from bad situations, isn't that right, stupid? You're blind, Rage. _

Rage hissed at Rude/Sarcasm and rose up threateningly but was quickly subdued by a glare from Raven. She glanced around, looking at all her emotions. Happy seemed unusually subdued today, Sloth was sleeping - no surprise there, Timid was cowering behind Sadness, who was busy cutting her wrist, Wisdom was looking at them all intently like she was studying them, Courage was-

Courage came up and poked Raven in the chest, hard. _You know you have the courage to stand up and fight for what's right. Never give up! If you think you're evil, then fight it and work for good. If you are afraid of what you have done before, make amends by righting the wrongs of the world. You cannot just give in and say that you'll kill yourself. That's the coward's way out. _

Raven looked away, suddenly very uncertain of herself. It was torture beyond even the pain she had felt earlier. She hated not knowing how she felt... although uncertainty was also something she had felt a lot lately. Actually, strike that. She had been uncertain almost her entire life. She glanced around again. Willpower had shoved Courage to the side and was now arguing with Sadness, probably about all the cutting and depression and the negative effects it was having on Raven.

Raven was strange like that. In one moment she could give up hope completely, like she had against her father, but then the next she was an indomitable force with an unbreakable will and extraordinary power. _Maybe I have bipolar disorder... _She had been diagnosed with it before, so there was some truth to that thought. Although lately she had just been plain depressed. That would explain why Sadness was able to kick away both Courage and Willpower and continue stabbing her wrist. Mirth chuckled slightly at that absurd situation.

Raven sighed. She always hated looking into her own mind. She could never get any straight answers from her emotions. _All I get is some garbled shit like what Rage tells me and then some other emotion comes along and tries to take over my mind. And then they all end up fighting each other... _She rubbed her temples, frustration showing on her face. _All I want is for this pain to go away... __  
_

Raven nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt someone hug her tightly, planting a light kiss on her cheek. Love smiled sadly at her before leaning again to kiss her on the lips. She ran a hand through Raven's shoulder length lilac hair, encountering no resistance from the dark cloaked woman. Raven was being strangely compliant today. _  
_

_Relax... _Love broke off the kiss and their amethyst eyes met. A pair of somber, dark ones meeting the tender, kind ones. Raven leaned forward and rested her head against her emoticlone's shoulder, feeling oddly comfortable even though she wasn't used to touching anyone. _Maybe I should talk to Love more... _she smiled slightly and closed her eyes. Love returned the expression and let Raven rest peacefully against her amidst the chaos of her other emotions.

* * *

A scorched landscape spread out before the Wraith, broken only by mountains of ashes and bones, and rivers of boiling magma that occasionally shot enormous columns of lava into the sky. In the distance, an enormous construct could be seen, a massive building with a wall encircling it and four gates granting access to it. _It is there. _

It drifted slowly across the landscape until it reached one of the gates, where several red-skinned, four eyed demons were patrolling.

"Welcome, master," they turned and bowed as the Wraith approached, moving aside to allow it entry to the building behind it. "He eagerly awaits you within."

The Wraith sighed. "Lord Trigon will not be very pleased with me. I have sown the seeds of chaos, freed the sins of man, but I have yet to capture _her." _

The demons looked at each other. "Your brothers have already gathered here. If you do not go, Lord Trigon will be even less pleased than before."

The Wraith shrugged. _Not like he can do anything to me anyway. The prison that sister created for him is... formidable._ "Very well, I will go now." The Wraith phased through the wall of the building and came into a gigantic hallway. It looked around.

_Just how I remember it. _The many statues lining the walls, the high arched ceiling, everything was made of obsidian, stone of the purest black. Chandeliers dangling from the ceiling lit the room brightly, though not as brightly as the sphere of pure white light surrounding the throne. Halfway down the vast room, a series of white bolts of magic resembling lightning bolts blocked it from going further, and knelt in front of that barrier were five more similarly shadowed figures. And within the giant sphere of light...

"Father," the Wraith came up and knelt beside his brothers.

"Wrath, second among my children," Trigon replied in greeting. "Envy, Sloth, Lust, Greed, Gluttony. My sons." He greeted the rest of them.

The six demons rose and cast aside their cloaks, revealing red skinned bodies, long white hair, and four red eyes gleaming out at their father. "Well, Wrath? How goes your doings in the world of mortals?"

Wrath could not help but feel slightly frightful of Trigon, though he was imprisoned and heavily weakened. There was just something about the demon-god that was so... intimidating. Threatening. "Two of the tasks are complete. I have yet to turn her to our side."

Trigon's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Wrath shifted uncomfortably. "Though she is the youngest among us... she is also the most powerful. I do not think I could battle her by myself... And she will not be turned so easily either."

Trigon slammed a fist on his armrest. "I know my daughter is... strong," he paused, musing at that thought. She had even defeated him in battle - though he had been heavily weakened at that time, but that was still a feat in itself. And she probably had only gotten stronger. "But the six of you should be able to handle her. You have some powers similar to those granted to my daughter. She will not be able to resist you forever. If the other two tasks are complete, it will be easy to bait the bird into the trap."

"And if there is interference?"

Trigon sat there, eyes closed. "Mortal interference does not pose a problem, I presume? But of the others... I suppose it would not be good to defy _him _imprisoned or not. Get to her quickly, before the others do."

The six demons grunted their acknowledgment of their father's words before leaving, heading towards the portal to Earth. They would have to get to Pride - Raven as she called herself now - as soon as possible, before anyone else did. After all, they knew that there were some things that even their father would not want to upset.

* * *

"Do you really believe that, Nightwing?" The Titans were gathered in the common room of the tower, looking through their databases and some of the old books that Raven had left behind. "Could Raven really be the Wraith? I didn't get a good look at that thing's face but..."

"I swear I saw four eyes," Beast Boy offered. "Last I checked, Raven had two. Though sometimes she did go all four eyes creepy demon on us. I guess after she tried to kill us she might've gone loony and then-"

"Slade told me that she was in Gotham with the Batman," Nightwing cut him off. "Unless she somehow gained the ability to become a demon without losing her mind, there's no way that's her. Batman wouldn't let a rampaging demon run free in his city."

They all looked at each other. All of them had had experiences with Raven's demon. "Yeah, there's no way she can turn into a demon and control it. But is she really in Gotham? Batman didn't even take too kindly to me the last time I was there," Terra scratched the back of her head, wondering if the dark knight would allow a demon in his city.

"Well, why don't you just ask him if she's there, Nightwing?"

"I can't do that, Cy. We aren't in touch anymore. And he won't give me any straight answers anyway."

"Come on, dude, he used to be your teacher and best friend, right? There's no way he wouldn't tell you something like that."

"I think Beast Boy is right, Nightwing. Despite everything that has happened, Raven is still our old friend. He wouldn't just lie about her to us," Starfire put a hand on Nightwing's shoulder. He brushed it off.

"You don't know him. Batman is a control freak, an asshole, a liar-"

"We know, we know. You've said it many times," Cyborg attempted to calm him down, but Nightwing merely glared at him. "There's a reason I left Gotham and lost contact with him. And I don't intend to talk to him ever again."

Everyone else looked at each other. Nightwing was known to overreact a lot.

"But Raven's our only lead on this Wraith thing. We don't know if it's her for sure, but it's our best guess for now. Unless you're saying that demons are somehow breaking free from Hell and coming to Jump?"

Nightwing shrugged. "You guys can go to Gotham if you want. I'm staying here. Besides, I never want to see her face again, unless it's in prison."

"Dude, you really need to chill," Cyborg looked at him seriously. "For all we know, demons could be breaking free from Hell and doing this. If that really is the case, Raven would be helpful in finding a way to stop them. Just because we had a fight doesn't mean that she's a villain, Nightwing. We can still work with her even if we're not friends anymore."_  
_

"I don't work with villains. The only place they belong is behind bars. And you seem to have forgotten that she almost _killed _all of us."

Cyborg held up his hands. "And we almost killed her. And dude, I don't think you have any right to say that you don't work with villains. I still remember all that Red-X business. You lost our trust for some time too."

"It was to protect you guys!" Nightwing lashed out at him, but relaxed when Starfire put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.

"Friend Nightwing, I don't think that we should hold a grudge against her. We need her to help save our city. And I cannot imagine Raven randomly killing people, even if she did fight with us."

"Yeah, Star? Well unlike you, some of us don't forget someone almost killing us so easily. Nightwing's right, we can't forgive her. She's a villain," Beast Boy didn't usually get angry that often, but whenever the subject of Raven came up...

Terra suddenly jumped in between them, sensing the dangerous tension in the air. "Guys! Calm down!" Cyborg and Starfire glared at Beast Boy and Nightwing, but everyone relaxed. Terra breathed a sigh of relief. "Now, I know I wasn't there when Raven left the team, but shouldn't we give her a chance? I mean, it might seem like she did these horrible things, but she might not have either. We can't just accuse her without any proof. And I mean, we're kinda stumped here. Why shouldn't we ask her to help us with this?"

"Because she's our enemy," Nightwing shot back. Beast Boy glared at Terra as well, but his gaze softened. He didn't really want to fight with his girlfriend over a matter that should have been long dead. His voice was surprisingly gentle when he spoke, his earlier anger drained out of him.

"Terra, look. Our trust in her has always been shaky, especially because we knew she was half demon and couldn't control that side of her too well. She proved that when she attacked us. And I mean, it wasn't some petty attack, she actually tried to kill us. Several times. There's just no way we can trust her anymore. It's not like I dislike her as a person," he stopped and looked around as everyone raised an eyebrow at him. Everyone knew that he and Raven had been polar opposites, and while he had liked her for a while, it was not really meant to be. "Okay, I don't really like her as a person. But while she might not be evil like Trigon was, she's still dangerous."

Starfire opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off as the alarm sounded.

"We'll talk about this later. We've got trouble again," the team scrambled over to the computer, where a single red dot was blinking near the old town library. Nightwing's eyes narrowed. "Trigon," he hissed.

* * *

"Stop!" Wrath snapped at Envy, who was holding an unconscious woman by the throat and was just about to kill her. Envy lowered her and looked quizzically at his older brother.

"Our objective isn't to kill these worthless mortals. It would just leave a trail for those pesky Titans to follow us. We're trying to draw out sister. Split up and hide yourselves, I will take care of this. They cannot find out that you are here."

Five shadows moved away into the darkness and Wrath looked around before walking down into the library. If there was one way to get his sister's attention, it would be doing something related to this place. There was no way she wouldn't notice it, no matter how far away she was. _Of course, the problem is that we had already made a ruckus when idiot Gluttony ran off and ate those people. Hopefully sister will come before those worthless mortal scum who call themselves heroes do. It would be a pain to fight them all. Although I heard that she isn't exactly on good terms with them anymore... __  
_

He looked up as he heard a sound behind him, but it was just leaves blowing in the wind. The mark of Trigon appeared on his forehead as he came to a particular section in the library, and a secret passageway opened. Moving quickly, he descended the stairs and then down further until he came to what seemed to be a large well with a staircase spiraling down. As he walked down that path, a bunch of souls came up and brandished their scythes at him. Wrath pulled back his hood, glaring at them. The spirits retreated back into the stone from which they came and Wrath continued down his path. Eventually he came to a doorway with his father's mark on it and he kicked that down, entering a series of dark hallways. Some of the spirits emerged from the walls to stare at him, as if they were curious, but he paid them no attention as he continued on his way.

And then the sounds of fighting reached his ears and Wrath turned around. _Those Titans are faster than I thought. I will have to get her attention quickly. _Wrath flew quickly down the dark passages until he reached the portal room, where there were many statues that resembled his sister circling the upper half of the room. Below there were the remnants of what was once an enormous claw, the hand of his father reaching up from his realm. He shook his head. That time was past.

_I do not know how sister defeated father, even if he had lost the majority of his power from journeying to this dimension and transforming this planet. I also do not know how her prison still holds him, even though he has gained back most of his strength. It must mean that sister's potential power is even greater than his, although right now she isn't using that potential. _He smirked. _And, since I am a demon, I know this as well... use more than a fraction of your power, sister, and the demon inside you will take over. But with just a fraction of your power at your disposal, how can you hope to defeat us? _

He jumped down to the ground, landing with no more than a tap in the darkness, and began walking to where the light shone from the opening above. As the most powerful of the demon brothers, it was to be his job to engage with her first and bait her into the trap before the others showed up. Wrath carefully lay down his wards at the perimeter of the circular area, taking care to lower the amount of magic enough so that Raven would not be able to detect them when she showed up. Well, not easily anyway. _But once she's here and I activate them, nobody will be able to get in or out, and ordinary mortals won't even be able to see past my barrier. We'll have all the time in the world to chat, my sister. _

Wrath looked around and sensed that all of his brothers were in position, hiding in the shadows around the circular room. _Looks like we're all set. Now hear my call, sister! _The demon gathered up his energy and smashed his hand on the ground. The mark of Trigon appeared on his forehead for a moment, and then a gigantic one appeared beneath his feet, positively radiating demonic energy from it. Wrath raised his hood and became no more than a shadow in the moon light as well, the only thing revealing his presence being the ominous vermilion light beneath his feet.

* * *

_It's been a week already. Honestly, I'm surprised that nothing big has happened here. Guess Batman keeps a good handle on things, unlike we did in Jump. I wonder how he does it all by himself. _Raven felt a cold wind blow through her lavender colored hair, which had now grown to slightly past her shoulders. It seemed paler than before, as did her normally pale grey skin. Standing up in the moonlight, she almost seemed like a ghost, garbed in all black, violet eyes gleaming. Although if one looked closely, there was a slight hue of crimson in that lilac as well. Raven bit her lip, feeling slightly unnerved for whatever the reason... and then tasted blood where she had bit herself... _wait, why do I have fangs? _She touched her teeth, which seemed normal except for the elongated and sharpened canines. _No way... It couldn't be... _

Her head snapped up and she looked into the sky, as if she could find answers there. She was met with nothing by the crackle of thunder and the onset of rain. Frowning, she raised a raven shaped shield above her head to keep the water away, and concentrated on the magical energy around her. She sensed only her own power, then spreading out in a sphere from her location, the magic of some of the criminals in prison as dim licks of fire, surprisingly nothing supernatural from Batman - she was shocked that he was just a human, who would have guessed? - then out further, sensing something in the distance in the direction of Metropolis... that would be Superman... and then in another direction, toward Jump, faint impressions of magical power from Starfire and Terra and then...

It loomed up on her quickly enough, almost overwhelming her as it resonated with the demon inside her. The enormous mark of Trigon burned its image into her eyes, into her soul, and Raven felt something stir within her that she thought she had long suppressed. _There's no way he broke free of his prison so quickly! I made it stronger than the last one and it took him hundreds of years to break out of that one! The only way is if he had help, or if it's no him but... _it clicked inside her mind and she shuddered. _My brothers... _Raven squeezed her eyes shut. Batman had spoken about a report from the Justice League of something weird killing things in Jump city for apparently no reason at all. _Wrath would do something like that. He always finds a reason to get angry... his temper is as bad as mine would be if I gave in to my demon side. _She put up her hood and, eyes still shut, focused harder on that symbol. Trigon's power emanated from it, a repulsive, disgusting power that made her sick to her stomach. But it also fed Rage, who was now getting dangerously close to taking over Raven's other emotions.

With a gasp, she broke off her focus and held a hand to her head. _I have to go stop him. If Trigon manages to get free again... _she shuddered as she felt Rage boil inside of her. _I hope I'll be able to manage it. _

Raven breathed out slowly and her soulself came flying out of her body, seeking the dark knight, who she knew would be haunting the other side of the city, either scouting from the rooftops or beating up thugs. The dark raven came up on him and made a move to enter his body, but Batman turned at the last minute and dodged aside. _This guy's senses and reflexes are crazy... _

"Raven...?" Batman relaxed slightly and let it enter his body.

_Batman, I've got to go to Jump for a bit. If I'm not back within a day, you have to contact the Justice League and tell them that Trigon might be coming back. _

She felt his eyes widen. _Raven, what are you-_

_Sorry, I have go. _Her soulself left his body and returned to her own. Raven's eyes opened, irises burning a strange mixture of sanguine mauve before she disappeared into a dark portal beneath her feet.

* * *

"Sister... Raven?" A shadowed figure came up from the darkness behind her body, illuminated by the glowing light from the symbol of Trigon beneath his feet.

Raven shuddered, the raspy voice bringing up too many unpleasant memories of her father and her own dangerously boiling rage inside of her. "Pride," she responded curtly, her own voice betraying none of her inner turmoil.

"Ah yes, sister Pride," the demon replied silkily, before his eyes suddenly flew open. He kicked at her violently and Raven barely dodged aside. "You're coming with me. Father insists upon it."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Don't piss me off, Wrath. I'm not taking part in any of your games."

Wrath laughed, a horrible, abrasive sound echoing throughout the chamber. His wards suddenly activated and the circular room was encased in an enormous hemisphere of darkness through which no light penetrated. "I thought I was supposed to be the angry one." His eyes narrowed at her as well, and he blasted magma at her, catching her by surprise. Raven barely threw up a shield in time and felt the demon within her rage at its cage. Being in such close contact with one of her fully demonic brothers was not good for her psyche.

"Seems like your temper is just as bad as mine," she replied as the lava stopped. "But you can't beat me in a one on one fight."

Wrath chuckled and came closer, circling her as a shark would its prey. "I suppose it is only fitting that you, Pride, would be the strongest among _us. _But you are not immortal."

"Us?" Raven's eyes widened as five figures came from the darkness and surrounded her. They all threw aside their cloaks, revealing the red skin, flowing white hair, and four demonic eyes, all smirking widely at her with their pointed teeth.

Raven turned towards Wrath, teeth bared, eyes glowing white.

"Like I said, you are coming with us. Whether you like it or not."

* * *

Slade's own mark of Trigon glowed brightly in the darkness and Wrath's voice came into his head. _We've made contact with her. You may proceed with Part II of your plan. And, don't betray my father again. He won't take kindly to it. _

_I am not his servant, _Slade grunted a curt response, before turning back to his computer monitor. "Now, with the Titans busy at that library, I have a bit of time to enact the next part of my plan. I may have messed up before, but you're going to meet your end this time, Titans. And your old friend is going to help you do it."

* * *

A/N: I didn't want to use Raven's demon brothers' actual names because I honestly can't remember them... :p So for now, I'll just call them by their "sin" name, and I'm giving them different powers somewhat based on their sin.

Also, as some might have guessed, Trigon is **_not _**the primary villain of this story; that would be too boring, wouldn't it? However, he will play a prominent role, especially since he is Raven's father.

Be prepared for next chapter, I have a lot of awesome stuff planned out!


	3. Wings of Death

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, or related content from DC comics. The only thing I own right now is this 1$ spongecake

Warning: This chapter contains some graphic scenes of violence (but it does not involve mutilation or such) as well as scenes inspired by a certain The Dark Knight movie and its sequel.

Another note on the characters, because this is a rather serious chapter, most of the Titans' characters will be portrayed as they are in more serious situations (so we won't get to see Beast Boy's or Cyborg's or Jinx's fun sides this chapter, for example. But don't worry, there will be more light hearted chapters in the future, they won't stay like this forever ^_^)

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

Enjoy!

* * *

"What the hell is this thing?" Nightwing panted, still hammering away at the black dome that had suddenly appeared out of the ground. None of them were able to see through it or penetrate it any way. The others were all sitting down, panting, the obsessive Nightwing being the only one still trying to break through. That man was a bit stubborn sometimes. He just didn't know when to give up.

"That's not going to work, Nightwing," a familiar voice sounded from behind the Titans, and out from the shadows walked a man in a black and orange mask.

The Titans, who were on the ground recovering just a moment ago, suddenly jumped up, warily eyeing the villain. But they knew better than to make the first move on him, especially when he was the one approaching them.

"What do you want?" Nightwing's tone was laced with ice.

Slade chuckled softly. "I'll ask you the same question. What do you want?" Before waiting for an answer, Slade took off his mask, revealing a screen underneath it. The real Slade appeared after a moment, gesturing to a three paneled computer monitor behind him. On the first screen, there was an image of several isolated traincars with many people in them, stuck on a bridge that had been broken on both sides, leaving the people no way out. Several bombs were underneath the bridge segments, each marked with Slade's symbol on them. The second screen presented a huge cave with bombs all over the ceiling and many people tied down onto the floor below. On closer inspection, those prisoners were many of the villains they had previously fought, like the H.I.V.E five, Dr. Light, and others. And the final screen showed one of Slade's old bases, the one right underneath the Titans' tower, also with many bombs on the ceiling.

"So, Nightwing. As I said, what do you want? Will it be your home? The citizens of your city? The criminals you worked so hard to keep in jail? Who will you kill, Nightwing? You can't possibly save them all."

The black haired hero snarled at his arch enemy furiously. "You're my first target, Slade! I know you're hiding the detonator to those bombs somewhere, and I'm going to beat it out of you!"

"That's... not quite true. You see, I have come prepared this time. In the past, my previous plans failed because I did not have a backup. This time, there is a certain special person I have in each group, one with the detonator to another group's bomb. Should anyone try to escape, they are instructed to blow up the others. If they do, they get to live. If they disobey, everyone dies. Of course, I forgot to mention to them that the bombs are rigged to blow up in 3 hours anyway. But hey, gotta give people a little hope. Happy hunting, Nightwing."

The screen buzzed and turned black, leaving a very agitated Titan holding the deactivated body of a Slade robot. Nightwing roared with rage and punched the screen, knocking the head clean off the robot.

"Starfire, you go get the train! With your strength, you might be able to carry it to safety. Terra, you take care of the people in the caves-"

"But they're villains! They can take care of themselves! We should just-"

"No buts! Knowing Slade, he has some way to jam their powers, and we can't just leave them to die. Most of them are just petty thieves. If the old HIVE is there, you can also go find Jinx and get her to help you. She probably won't leave her old friends to die so easily. But make it fast. And Cyborg, take care of the Tower. Beast Boy and I will wait here and see what we can do."

"What about Slade? Won't he just detonate the bombs the instant he sees us?"

"You'll have to find a way to deactivate them or negate their effects. We don't have the time to search for him. I know enough about him to know that he's not going to get caught so easily. And I'm not sure I can face this Wraith one on one, so Beast Boy has to stay here. Go! We don't have time to discuss this!"

"Stay safe, Richard," Cyborg used his real name to show his concern for his leader. "Star, Terra, let's go!"

* * *

Raven faced Wrath warily, a dark expression on her face. She seized his body with her powers again, attempting to move him, but he met it with what seemed to be his own soulself, an incarnation of red like her black raven, and dispelled her magic. Raven frowned and cast her powers in a hollow sphere around him, slowly tightening it until it began to crush his body. And again it was dispelled. She was forced to dodge aside as her other brothers came in, each of them casting their own soulselves at her in the forms of red claws. She guarded with a shield and retreated into the shadows, hoping to gain an edge by blending in with the darkness. The demons carefully followed her into the shadows, eyes searching in the black void. Evidently they did not have the telepathic or empathic powers that she did.

Suddenly she lashed out with tendrils of darkness, striking vicious blows against her brothers, against Envy, Wrath, Sloth, and Lust, who were all knocked back and momentarily stunned. Gluttony, however, merely ate her energy, and Greed absorbed it in a similar manner. Gritting her teeth, she formed shrinking spheres of darkness around each of them again, hoping to crush their bodies before they could react, but to no avail, her powers were canceled by theirs. She sensed a malicious force behind her and dodged aside again, narrowly avoiding a slash of Wrath's red energy, and shielded herself when the rest of them attacked. Disappearing into a portal below her, she reappeared on the other side of the room.

"You even extended the barrier underground," she seethed at Wrath, who merely chuckled.

"Watch yourself, sister Pride. The longer you stay here, the more susceptible you are to your demon side."

"I am in perfect control, thank you," she hissed back spitefully. "But you should be the one watching yourself, dear brother. If you're not careful, I'll _fucking kill you!_"

Suddenly two black claws reached up from the ground beneath the demon and ripped through his body, causing him to scream in pain. She pressed the assault and invaded his mind, taking care to raise a shield around herself first so that the others could not interfere. Wrath and Raven both fell limp as they began their mental battle while the other demons beat on her shield, vainly attempting to break through.

_What makes you think you can control me? Prideful though you may be, you are still weak, Raven. I see all of your insecurities, your despair, your cowardice. Your fear that the demon within you will take over. You fear being one of us, don't you. _

Raven's willpower surged up and blotted out the voice tempting her Rage. _I'm the telepath. You don't dictate what emotions I feel, I dictate yours. Face it, Wrath, you'll always be my little brother. You'll never be stronger than I am. How pathetic. The eldest of a demon lord's son with much more battle experience and you're still weaker than me. By your standards, father should disown you, you disgrace. _

Wrath's voice was suddenly angry; she had forgot that he had a hot temper too. Well, no duh. _Shut up! What would you know of what father should do?! You're the one who betrayed us, your family, and your heritage! Open your eyes, Raven, sister! All these stupid mortals and traitorous humans surround you, attack you, shun you, and nearly kill you for who you are, and you still trust them more than us, your brothers? _

_You are no brother of mine! All you care about is destruction and power! You're evil! Don't you dare talk to me like that! _Raven loomed over him ominously, and Wrath, in his anger, could not help but admit that he was a little afraid. Her demonic side began to show through her hooded visage, four eyes gleaming savagely above a hissing mouth of pointed teeth. _I gave you a fair warning, Wrath. But if you don't want to listen, fine. Your mind is mine then. _

Demonic Raven loomed high above mental Wrath, and now the rage was completely gone from the demon, replaced with a dreadful fear of his younger, but elder in terms of power, sister. Power surged from Raven's darkness and tore into Wrath, destroying his rage entirely and leaving him with nothing but a tiny bundle of other emotions, foremost amongst them a strange incarnation of the demon garbed in a pure white color. _So this is what is left without your rage. Happiness. I suppose it is only right, that without your sin you become the opposite of what you once were. Now, why don't you just lie there in peace while I take care of your brothers. _

The real Raven opened her eyes and instantly felt a wave of nausea come over her. Exerting her telepathic powers was never exactly easy, especially not on one of her demon brothers. And she had almost been overcome by her own demon side during that exchange as well. Fighting to keep the violent urges inside of her down, Raven stood up and lowered her shield. It was a horrible idea.

Dizzy from overexertion of her powers, she was unable to block the demons' attacks and was slammed into the wall by five pairs of glowing red claws. Raven cried out and felt several of her ribs break. She coughed up mouthfuls of blood and closed her eyes, desperately trying to focus on her center.

"Brother!" The demon brothers noticed Wrath's unmoving body on the other side of the room. "Wrath! Get up! What's wrong with you!"

Ten pairs of red eyes glared hatefully at the violet haired girl and the claws slammed into her body harder. Raven screamed and spat out more blood. "What have you done with him! Traitor!"

Raven opened one eye, face still contorted with pain. "I... thought... you weren't... supposed to... kill me-" she was cut off as a hand closed around her throat.

Envy's dark smirk struck a note of discord within her heart, bringing up her suppressed fears... and rage. "You know, Pride, you're not the only telepath among father's children. There is one other..." Both of their bodies slumped as this time, Raven's mind was invaded.

* * *

"Jinx!" Terra caught sight of the pink haired girl walking along the side of the road, looking glumly down at the ground.

"What," was the moody reply. "Am I in trouble or something?"

Terra looked at her quizzically. "No, nothing like that. I need your help," she rushed on without waiting for a reply. "Slade's captured a bunch of people and among them are your old friends and-"

"Yeah, I know. He kinda said it on the giant screen in the middle of the city. Nobody would have missed it. So let me guess, you want me to help you get my old friends out of trouble?"

"Um, yeah," Terra looked at her awkwardly, sensing the moodiness practically radiating off the other girl. _Looks like we have a new Raven in town... _

Jinx sighed. "It's probably a trap, you know. I've worked with Slade before, so I know... he's just going to use them as bait and we're going to be the fishies walking right into it. And those guys probably agreed to it too. They want to see us dead."

Terra held up her hands. "Whoa, calm down girl. No need to be so pessimistic. What's wrong?"

The pink one shrugged. "It's nothing. I'll be fine. It's just..." she sighed. "Never mind. We've got something more important to do. Are you sure this isn't a trap?" She looked at the blonde suspiciously.

"I... dunno. Nightwing was all like we have to save those guys even if they're villains because every life is precious blah blah blah... but I suppose he's right. We can't just let them all die. Like take your friends for example. They're not like super evil, right? They just steal stuff but they're not actually out to kill people, right?"

Jinx glared at Terra. "They're not my friends anymore. They probably think I've betrayed them," she looked really sad at that thought, "and now I'm alone. An outcast. But whatever. I guess you're right. My old friends wouldn't work for Slade... willingly, at least... not after how he's treated us before. We'll just have to be extra careful in case he set us up or sumthin'."

Terra nodded and lifted them both off the ground on a platform of rock, speeding North to where the cave was supposed to be.

* * *

Cyborg carefully dismantled the bombs one by one, cutting the red wires on each of them to short out the detonation sequence. The base of Titan's Tower had already been weakened by one of Slade's attempts to sink it before, when he had used those worm things to drill through the rock supporting the tower. If the bombs went off, it would definitely undo the work Raven and Terra had done to restore the base.

"In hindsight, I probably got the easiest job out of all of us," he muttered to himself, a little guiltily. "I hope the others can handle it. I better finish up fast so I can go help them."

Suddenly his hand slipped and he cut the blue wire instead of the red one. The bomb he was holding began to glow brightly and shake in his hand.

"Oh shit!" Cyborg tore it off of the rock and threw it downward, causing a massive explosion in the empty space beneath him. "Phew. That was a close one. Don't even wanna think about what woulda happened if that thing went off here. Well, no harm done. Nobody'll know."

"Oh, really?" Slade's voice sounded right next to his year, and Cyborg practically jumped off the ceiling of the cavern. "Wha- What the hell? H-How did you get so close without me detecting you?" Cyborg jumped down and landed on the ground 50ft below, pointing his sonic cannon at Slade. The shock on his face disappeared quickly and was replaced by a grim focus.

"Are you sure you want to point that thing at me? What if you accidentally hit one of these bombs?" Slade decided to toy with the man; he was really quite good at taunting people. Rubbing people the wrong way was just something that came naturally to villains. Cyborg's eyes narrowed in anger. Normally, he wouldn't have been so mad even when fighting a villain; most of them, he had to admit, were relatively harmless and only focused on stealing things. So he could afford to find a bit of humor and relax a bit, even when he was fighting for justice. But people like Brother Blood and Slade... they were embodiment of real evil, like Trigon was, though the demon was evil to a greater extent. There was something about his hatred for those people, their blatant disregard for human emotions, life, freedom... something that made him hate them with a fervor that was only surpassed by Nightwing's hatred. He would never forgive people like them. _  
_

Cyborg's tone was unnaturally cold and dangerous when he spoke. "Don't mess with me, Slade. You're going down, here, and now."

"Shoot me then!" Slade's visible eye flew wide open and his voice was mocking, daring. "But I know you too well. You wouldn't dare. You're too afraid of failure, that you'll miss and screw everything up. That's right. You're afraid you're too weak."

"Try me." Cyborg shot at Slade, who dodged aside right before it hit him. And luckily, no bombs were hit.

"Looks like you finally grew some balls, metal man," Slade jumped down from the ceiling and faced the hero in a fighting stance. "Your mother would be proud to see that her boy's all grown up. Too bad she's dead."

"Shut up!" Cyborg shot at him again, missing, but then jumped forward aggressively, catching the villain somewhat off guard. Slade grunted as he barely blocked the flurry of kicks and punches and jumped back to gain some distance.

"I'm afraid the only way to shut me up is to kill me, Cyborg. I've grown rather fond of talking. You should try it some time."

_Less talking, more buttkicking! _the Titan focused harder on the situation at hand, not giving in to Slade's provocations. They fought back and forth, evenly matched, neither able to gain the upperhand.

"You've really improved a lot over the years," Slade commented as he jumped back once again. "It seems like just fighting with you won't get me anywhere."

"You mean I'm going to kick your ass right here, right now, and drag you to rot in prison."

Slade merely chuckled at that statement. "I had hoped not to have to use this, but since you enjoy running your mouth, here, have fun with your new present!" The villain pulled out the detonator and pressed one of the three glowing buttons on it. The bombs on the ceiling exploded, but there were too few remaining to really cause much damage, and the tower did not sink at all.

Cyborg stared at the explosions for a moment before turning back to Slade, voice filled with confidence. "Looks like you misjudged your little explosives, didn't you. You fucked up hard, and now you're going to pay for it-"

"I did not _fuck up _at all," Slade murmured with a hint of amusement. "If you hadn't been so angry, you might have noticed your surroundings a little better before now." He gestured to the floating catwalks that they were standing on and Cyborg's eyes widened as he saw a bunch of bombs underneath the one he was standing on.

"No!" The bombs exploded and sent the hero falling down into the pit below, battered and unconscious.

Slade snorted and jumped down after him, landing right beside the fallen Titan. "Worthless fool," he muttered, kicking Cyborg in the side, hard. The half machine man's body flipped over and all he gave off was a soft groan. "Maybe if you had spent your time wiring your brain a little better rather than make all your stupid toys, you might have been able to beat me. But, I guess foresight was never your forte." Slade muttered to himself like a madman as he picked up the hero's body and hauled it off back to his base. Perhaps he was a little insane, but hey, most mastermind criminals were. It wasn't something unique to him.

* * *

"Cyborg? Friend Cyborg? Why do you not answer me? Please, friend, answer!" Starfire shouted at her communicator, which only showed her a screen of flashing black and white pixels. She frowned and tried again. "Cyborg? Are you there?" Silence.

Starfire frowned worriedly and dialed a different number. Nightwing appeared on her screen, his face a mask of frustration and worry.

"Starfire!" He shouted at her a little too loudly and realized it afterward. "Sorry, I'm just a little jumpy right now," he continued more softly. "Any news on Cyborg? I heard him yell and tried to contact him back but he hasn't given me a response."

Starfire closed her eyes and shook her head, a sad expression on her face. Nightwing pounded a fist on the ground, anger and nervousness beginning to take their toll on his mind. "Well we can't worry about this now. Stay focused on the mission at hand. Go and try to help those people, Star."

"But what if friend Cyborg is in danger? Won't he need our-"

"No," Nightwing replied flatly. "Our first duty is to the city. Our friends come after that. Besides, Cy can handle himself. Look, we don't have time for this. Just go." He didn't yell like he normally did, but there was a burning intensity in Nightwing's voice that suggested that he was not to be messed with at the moment. Starfire sighed and merely nodded. She often worried about Nightwing. The way he behaved was so... there wasn't really a word to describe it but Batman-ish... at times, especially when it came to crime fighting. He was almost fanatical in his pursuit of justice, willing to sacrifice _anything _to bring the bad guy down, himself, his friends, anything that made him happy. The obsessiveness with which he fought was only matched by that of his mentor, and no matter how much he wanted to deny it, Batman really had rubbed off on him. _All I want is everyone to be happy... On Tamaran, we would not have let fighting the bad guys get in the way of our friendships. _A small smile appeared on her face. _I remember when sister Komiand'r was little... she used to steal lots of things from other people and Galfore would get so mad at her... but he still loved her like he did me. Oh, we were all his little bumgorfs, no matter what we did... Of course sister Komiand'r is now a little bit crazy. _She sighed.

_I just wish we could be close... like we once were. _

Starfire came out of her thoughts as she looked down and saw the train wreck on the broken bridge. Squinting more closely, she saw all the little bombs underneath the bridge, each with a Slade symbol on them. _Oh, what do I do... What if he just blows them up when he sees me... Oh, all those poor people... _Starfire was notoriously indecisive sometimes; without some impetus to drive her to do something, she would never come to a decision on what to do. But Nightwing had told her - no, he had _ordered _her to save those people, no matter what the cost. There wasn't any choice in the matter.

Forcing down the butterflies in her stomach Starfire cautiously approached the train cars, but upon closer inspection, found that there was nobody inside them.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Silence. She tried again a little louder. "Helllloooo?"

This time she heard a faint cry coming from the car in the far back. Flying carefully through the cars, as some of them seemed to be on the verge of falling apart, she approached the door tentatively. The crying sounded like it was just behind that door, although it was strange and somewhat gurgling, like a baby was crying but also choking in the process.

Starfire opened the door and found the train car filled with people bound and gagged, and a single baby tied to the ground in the center, wailing with a slightly choked sound. _But something is very wrong here. There were many more people on the computer Slade showed us. Perhaps he has moved them? _Starfire walked over to the baby and did her best to put on a smile, even though she could not help but feel afraid inside. Afraid for all these people, afraid that she might not be able to save them. And afraid for all the others that were missing.

Grunting, she tore apart the ropes holding the baby to one of the poles on the train car and held it in her arms, trying to figure out why it was crying so strangely.

"Oh, whatever is the matter, little one? Are you hungry? Do you have... the gas?" She patted it on the back a couple times and it opened its mouth to burp. And then she saw what was wrong. Inside its mouth, someone... _Slade! You #$^% &#$%!... _had taped a minibomb, and it was causing the baby to choke a bit every time it tried to cry. Starfire looked around angrily, eyes glowing green, before looking back down at the baby in her arms.

"Stay still, little one, let me get this thing out of you." Starfire tried to reach inside its mouth, but the baby bit down on her wrist. Starfire winced in pain and tried again. _How could anyone do something so horrible? Even Slade would not have gone this distant to reach his goal, at least in the past he would not. _She frowned and looked down sternly at the baby before seeing something written on its white shirt.

"Turn... around..?" She said it slowly, slightly confusedly. The alien princess spun around quickly as she sensed something enter the room and was met with a face full of Slade's fist. She flew backward, taking care to protect the baby as she hit the ground. Slade did not give her a chance to retaliate. He reached into his pocket and drew out a detonator, and she was sure he was grinning wickedly beneath that mask.

"No! Slade! If you dare to press that button I will-"

He pressed the button. "You will what, exactly?"

Starfire screamed as she realized _every single person _in the train car had a bomb somewhere inside them, and that every single one of them was about to go off. The explosion tore out the bottom of the traincar and the bridge underneath it, sending the alien flying down to the river below. Her eyes were wide with shock and anger as blood rained above her for a few seconds and Slade emerged from the train car, unharmed. She might have been okay, being a resilient Tameranian, but those people... _those poor people..! _Starfire clenched her muscles and teeth together, eyes glowing furiously at the villain who was busy brushing off some dirt from his arms.

"Come now, my dear girl. You didn't actually think that I'd let all these people live once you came to save them, did you?" He gestured to the area underneath the rest of the bridge, where the rest of the people that were supposed to be on the train cars were hidden, a hologram hiding them from the sight of anyone who might have been randomly flying overhead. That would explain why she hadn't been able to see them.

Starfire prepared to leap at Slade, but he pressed another button, setting off the remaining bombs under the bridge. The alien gasped in shock and flew down to try to prevent the train cars and rocks from crushing the helpless people. Slade calmly jumped down from the falling rocks and landed beside a growing mountain of debris and... well, people who were probably _not okay _inside of the rubble. The river slowly turned red after a moment, a diluted shade of blood that was thick with... other things.

And then a hand punched out of the mountain of rocks and out emerged the upper body of a coughing red haired girl, who had not sustained this damage as well as she had sustained the previous attack. Gasping for breath, and only getting the scent of blood and gore reaching her, Starfire felt the rage boil inside her. But she was still stuck in the rocks. Slade climbed up the debris and grabbed her hair, turning her head up to face him.

"Enjoy the fireworks?" He murmured, dodging aside as the girl shot two green bolts of energy from her eyes at him. He laughed, a much more chilling laugh than she had ever heard before. Taking out his staff, he beat the helpless girl until the world went black.

* * *

_You are jealous. You resent the fact that you have never and will never fit in among mortals, sister. I can see all your worst fears, the grudges you still hold because of your Envy... You hate that the people you trusted betrayed you. Your once friends, your only home in this world had abandoned you. You hate people judging you because you are part demon and you hate, most of all, yourself, for not being able to control your powers. __But it is okay, sister. All is not lost. Though you may Envy those with family and friends who actually care for them, you do not have to suffer the fate of loneliness and persecution. We are here, sister. Your brothers will protect you from the pain of solitude. You do not have to be alone, nor do you have to be the odd one out any more. _

Raven struggled, not from the grasp of the red claws that were still pinning her to the wall, but against Envy's invasion of her mind. _You think I'm going to believe you? You're a goddamn demon! And though I only share half my blood with you, I know perfectly well the lies and deceit that you can use to play with me. _

_But that doesn't make you any less jealous, does it._

_Get out of my head! You don't belong here! _

Envy's snicker echoed throughout her mind. They both knew that she was in denial. But Raven's willpower, when she actually wanted to fight, was a monstrous entity. Suddenly, above the demon, a figure cloaked in scarlet rose up from the darkness in Raven's mind. It stared down hatefully at the tiny demon at its feet. _Leave before I kill you! _Its voice was laced with a much deeper one, giving off the sensation of incredible power. Envy stared back at it, slightly daunted. The scarlet Raven smirked. _You may think that I am the envious one here. But you are, more so than I am. You're envious of my power, aren't you? You're envious that I have the mental strength to keep my demon side at bay and resist the destructive urges that consume all of you! You're jealous of everything, whether it is power, real friends, or happiness! You know as well as I do that your brothers would easily turn on you if you posed a threat to them. And you still call them your family? Please. Face it Envy, you're just as alone as I am! You're just too afraid to admit it!_

_I..._

_And you're not just afraid of them abandoning you. You're afraid that they're stronger than you. You're afraid that father will label you weak and disown you, and then have your pitiful 'family' turn on you and destroy you. You're jealous and scared, much more than I am. _Willpower's scarlet cloak suddenly began shifting to a darker color, one more like blood. _Now get out, before I destroy you! You'll find that meeting **my**_ _demon will not be pleasant. _

Envy gasped and woke up, taking several steps back from the girl pinned to the wall, who was now breathing a little more easily. Raven opened her eyes, which now had a dangerous red glimmer behind them. Her mouth twisted evilly. "You're weak," she muttered. "How pathetic is that for a demon? Weaker than your brothers and your little sister."

Envy glowered at her in fury and gathered magic in his hands. "Very well, _Pride, _let's see how you deal with this!"

A bolt of red energy hit Raven's chest and disappeared. A moment later, several beams of crimson light flew out and took the form of different figures - Nightwing, a miniature Trigon, the Batman, and a dark shadowy figure that made Raven's breath stick in her throat. Her heart pounded with fear at the sight of that thing. Her own demon grinned at her and nibbled at her collarbone - evidently, it had inherited Lust as well.

"I might be called Envy, but fear is my domain as well. You would do well to remember that, dear sister."

_This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real... _She gasped as the red claws released her and Nightwing kneed her in the stomach. _Okay, they're real. Looks like I either have to fight them, or... _Her eyes shifted to Envy, who was visibly weaker. Evidently his spell consumed much of his stamina. _If I take him out, it should dispel these creatures. I just have to control my fear and not let it affect my fighting. _

Raven disappeared into the ground and a moment later she emerged behind Envy, striking a savage blow on the demon's back with a black raven claw. She pounded into once more before she was blocked by a red shield that Sloth conjured up to protect his brother with. The other three demons closed in around her and she disappeared into thin air once more. Reappearing beneath the shield this time, Raven evoked the full power of her soulself and disappeared with Envy into her soulself's dimension.

_You're done for, _she whispered to her brother.

Envy's eyes flew wide open as the torrent of all of Raven's suppressed emotions hit him at once, unimaginable fury followed by an abyssal fear, coupled with the gloom of years of depression, soaring joy, euphoria, mirth, lust... the strange absence of love... darkness, and above it all, the looming threat of a four eyed monster gleaming beyond the tempest of her temperament. His brain could not handle it all and he overloaded.

Envy fell back to the ground, unconscious, and his constructs of Raven's fear disappeared. But now Raven was exhausted and wounded, and there were still four of her brothers left to face her. And she was losing control of her demonic side. Breathing heavily, she dodged aside again, feeling Rage and the demon slowly break through her mental defenses.

* * *

"Nightwing? Whaddaya want?" Jinx mumbled at the picture of the Titans' leader, who had a very worried look on his face.

"I can't seem to reach Starfire. I don't want to assume the worst right off the bat, but it's possible that she was... taken down," he took a deep breath. "Just be careful. Slade might have sent up a trap for you guys, and I don't want to lose any more of my friends today." His face disappeared.

"I told you!" Jinx told her golden haired companion. "We should retreat, Terra. We've already lost Star 'n Cy-"

"Nightwing didn't tell us to fall back," Terra shot back. "He only said to be careful."

"Well then you can count me out. I'm not walkin' into an obvious trap, miss I'm-overconfident-and-I-can-beat-all-those-bad-guy s-by-myself."

Terra looked at her strangely, slightly concerned. Jinx was almost never this moody. "Jinx, don't try to deny it anymore. Something's wrong, and you're going to tell me what it is. It's not like you to act like this."

Jinx closed her eyes. "You wouldn't understand. Doesn't matter. 's not a big deal. Sorry for bein' a bitch. Let's keep going."

Terra muttered something to herself, vowing to question the former villain later about her strange behavior. But she let it drop for now. They had to see what they could do about this whole situation, although the fact that Starfire and Cyborg had gone missing made her nervous. As a geomancer, she was strong, but she didn't want to take her chances against something that had been able to beat them, especially with a horde of villains around. She looked at Jinx to see if the pink haired girl shared her sentiments and was met by a glare. And then Jinx relented after a moment. "Yeah, I'm nervous too," she admitted. A look of annoyance came over her face. "I don't really want to do this either, but someone's gotta do it."

Terra nodded and they traveled in silence, both of them feeling the uneasy atmosphere settle about them as they neared the entrance to the cave that Slade had shown them. It was eerily silent, much to quiet for the heroes' likings, since there was supposed to be a mob of villains stuck in this cave after all. But there was no sound at all, not even the sound of the slightest breeze or water dripping.

"Terra."

"Yeah?"

"It's too quiet. Sumthin's up. Be on guard," Jinx's eyes flashed pink and she tensed up.

They proceeded cautiously into the cave, taking care to observe all of their surroundings for traps or possible hiding places. But they found nothing except discomfort in the ominous atmosphere. Eventually they came to an area that was dimly lit with a bunch of torches, where there were several unconscious villains tied up on the ground. "Dr. Light, Adonis, Atlas, Cheshire, Warp, Trident, how many people did he capture?"

"Dunno," Jinx looked around and prodded a sleeping Plasmus with her foot. "Some of these guys are pretty harmless, but some of 'em are dangerous. Just get rid of those bombs and let's get outta here." The girls rose up on a rock platform to the ceiling and stared at the devices.

"I remember Cyborg tellin' me that it's usually the red one."

"...What? And why would he tell you something like that?"

Jinx blushed. "We... met when he was undercover at the HIVE academy. And I was talkin' about wires, ya airhead."

Terra smiled a little. At least Jinx was starting to act more like herself again. And then she frowned and hit the other girl on the head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"I'm not an airhead."

Jinx giggled a little. "Whatever. Let's just get this over with." She slowly cut one of the red wires with a jagged rock and waited nervously for some reaction. Sure enough, the bomb's screen showed "disarmed" after a moment, prompting a sigh of relief from both of them.

After disarming all the bombs, they continued deeper into the cave though a patch of darkness before reaching another area, filled with a bunch of old HIVE academy people. Some of them were awake and when they saw the two Titans walk into the light, their eyes practically bugged out of their heads, but any attempts at greeting were blocked by duct tape over their mouths. "Gizmo! Mammoth!"

Jinx rushed over to her two old teammates and ripped the duct tape off of their mouths. Both of them howled in pain before glaring up at her. Jinx smiled and rubbed the back of her head. "Whoops. But wow, you guys haven't changed a bit even though I haven't see in you forever!"

Gizmo glared at her. "Still can't believe you ditched us for those lousy peanut brained Titans. Why are you here, anyway?"

Jinx glared back. "To save you, you ungrateful asshole."

Gizmo's eyes widened as he remembered something. "You guys have to get out of here! It's a trap! Slade tied us up here to lure you in and-" Gizmo was cut off as his eyes turned red and he fell asleep.

"Get out of here! Otherwise you'll both-" Mammoth was also knocked unconscious before he could finish his sentence.

Brother Blood walked out of the darkness and faced the two Titans, smiling wickedly. "One face I haven't seen in a very long time, and the other I've never seen at all. Greetings," he bowed graciously before looking up again, eyes turning red.

"I don't think so," Jinx's eyes turned pink and she remained unaffected. Terra, however, was unprepared as Brother Blood invaded her mind.

"What the hell are you doing to me?" The blonde struggled as if she were in the grasp of a gigantic, invisible hand. She shook her head wildly, trying to rid herself of the villain's influence, but he slowly took over her mind.

Jinx attacked Brother Blood immediately, hoping to stop the process of taking over Terra's mind, but he dodged aside and managed to evade her attacks. _How the fuck is this guy so fast? He's supposed to be old, goddammit! _Jinx muttered under her breath in frustration. Brother Blood had never been easy to fight, even without his mind control abilities. And now she was forced to cartwheel away as Terra joined the fray, eyes glowing with red light.

"You know, my old pupil, it would have been so much easier if you had just let me finish teaching you!" He spat out as he threw several punches and blocked Jinx's hexes. "But my offer expired a long time ago. You'll be... learning... from Slade now."

"I'm not gonna be learning from anyone, _Professor Blood,_" her voice was laced with sarcasm. She darted past Brother Blood and Terra, making her way back into the darkness, hoping to find a way out. Terra made a move to chase her, but Brother Blood held up a hand.

"That won't be necessary. She's doomed anyway."

Jinx looked over her shoulder, puzzled at why Brother Blood would just let her go, until she sensed something in the darkness with her. A large man in a metal suit appeared in front of her, staring the Titan down. Jinx's mouth and eyes were wide open with fear, and she fell to the ground, backing up until she hit the wall. All the while, the masked man advanced on her. She ducked under a powerful kick and threw a couple hexes, bringing the ceiling of the cave down on him, but the man dodged aside and leapt at her. _Why the fuck are all these old dudes so fast anyway? _She jumped as he tried to slide tackle her and then fired off a few more hexes before running away. Her pursuer grunted as they hit him, but they didn't see to do any damage.

_Wait a second... that's not right. My hexes didn't do anythin' at all? _She looked back, puzzled, and faced her attacker. Slade charged out of the darkness and took another face full of hexes. He was sent flying back as Jinx turned around to run again, but she came face to face with the real Slade.

"Damned robot clones," she muttered to herself, looking up frightfully at the man's menacing figure. He kicked her, hard, into the unbreakable clutches of his robot clone. Jinx struggled a couple times, hexes flying out everywhere, and something broke inside the robot, shutting it down. She smirked.

"What now, Slade?" She looked at him triumphantly.

"What now? You're still caught. Just because my robot shut down doesn't mean you broke its arms."

Jinx looked down and mentally facepalmed. She always forgot about those little things... well it was a pretty big deal in this situation. She gave off a noise of irritation as she threw out hex after hex, but was still unable to break the robot's arms. _Of all the times for me to get bad luck, why now? Why did I have to get the stupid powers that manipulate probability of all things? Why couldn't I just get the normal ones that like... blow stuff up or something? Stupid bad luck. _She threw a couple hexes at Slade as he closed in, but he merely dodged them again and kicked her in the gut.

"Lights out. Maybe you'll have better luck when you're dead," he murmured, and slammed his fist into her solar plexus.

* * *

Raven was knocked back again, slamming into a wall with extreme force as the demons charged forward. She disappeared into a portal and reemerged on the other side of the room once more, trying to catch her breath before they came after her again. Throwing up a shield, she blocked the first attack, and the second, but cracks began to appear in it as her brothers continued pounding away. She was simply too weakened at this point to fight effectively. Raven gritted her teeth, eyes blazing white from underneath her hood. Beams of pure black energy shot out and met with red shields.

"Give it up, sister," Greed spoke silkily, as if he were a businessman. No surprise there. "You are one of us," Lust continued. "Give in, give in to your demon blood, Pride. There's no way you can beat the rest of us."

"I'll die before joining you." Inwardly, she wasn't so sure about that. _Greed can mimic my abilities so I won't be able to do anything to him. Gluttony seems to be able to absorb my energy blasts, so I'll have to take care of him some other way later. Sloth can sap my strength merely from touching me, so I have to avoid him at all costs. I have to take down Lust first... __  
_

She struck with all of her strength at once, focusing an intense beam of pure white light at Lust. It, however, went straight through him, doing absolutely no damage at all. _The problem is, Lust has the power to manipulate senses, if I remember correctly. He can make me see and hear things that aren't there. I have to use my soulself to find him. _Raven dodged around as her brothers leapt at her, trying to tear her apart with blasts of red energy and with their red soulself claws. She landed heavily on the ground and coughed up some blood, her broken ribcage not feeling very happy with her.

"Azarath metrion zinthos," she muttered under her breath before they could attack her, and suddenly her soul grew until it shrouded the entire area in a darkness that no eyes could penetrate. _I won't be able to hold this for very long, but I'll at least be able to confirm Lust's location. _Panting with the effort of maintaining her powers, Raven gathered up what little strength she had left and fired another beam of pure white at Lust.

The demon howled and screamed as it formed white lightning around his body, causing excruciating pain. But it was not enough to take him down. As the darkness faded a few moments later, Raven collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted. And then her eyes flew open as she felt a foot stomp on her back. Sloth, ironically, had taken the lead and now sapped all of her remaining strength, leaving her hovering on the border of subconsciousness. Everything was blurry and wavered back and forth in front of her eyes, except for Lust's angry four eyed glare.

"You had many chances to do this the easy way, sister, but we're not putting up with this any longer. You're going to join us, whether you like it or not."

"So what are you waiting for?" Raven spat out. "Why don't you just knock me unconscious and drag me to wherever father is?"

"You're not getting off so easily," another voice above her spoke. Greed. She felt his hand remove her hood and touch her head.

"What are you..?" She was cut off as Sloth stomped her into the ground harder. Honestly, she wasn't sure how she was still conscious.

She sensed Greed walk over to Wrath's unconscious body and kneel beside it. He did something for a few moments, then got up and moved to Envy's body. And they both got up and closed in around Raven.

"You know I can copy your abilities to some extent, right? I might not be as good at healing as you are, but its good enough to cure their minds. And now, dear sister, you are doomed."

Raven hissed at him. "Yeah? And what are they going to do that you could not? You're just wasting your time here. Kill me already."

Wrath's soulself slammed into Raven's body and she could feel several other bones break. She blacked out momentarily, the pain overwhelming her brain.

"Control yourself, Wrath. I know you're royally pissed off, but father won't be happy with you if you kill her."

Wrath merely grunted in response and retracted his energy. Greed knelt beside Raven and touched her forehead with two glowing blue fingers. _Just enough to wake her up... _Raven gasped as everything rushed into her mind past her broken mental barriers, the pain, her anger at her brothers, their swirling emotions - though from most of them the primary emotion she could sense was anger, especially from Wrath - the fact that almost all of her ribs, both of her legs, and her left wrist were broken... She bit her lip to keep from screaming and the blood drained from her face, leaving her paler than ever. Her brothers chuckled evilly and she could sense their anger fade, replaced with a sensation of victory.

"Now, while she's still recovering-"

"What the Hell do you think you're doing?" She managed to gasp out and Wrath turned to stare at her.

"You're aware that each of us, including you, can induce and amplify our sin in another person," he smirked as Raven's eyes widened. "Your human half is too weak now, Pride. Now, unleash the demon within yourself and join us!"

Raven felt the surge of emotions within her as her brothers poured their powers into her body. Lust, Envy, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony... and finally Wrath, like a finishing blow. She didn't even have time to protest. The demon broke free of its cage and shoved her human half into it.

Her brothers stepped back, sensing the surge of power within Raven's unmoving body. "It's all over now," Wrath murmured, as demon-Raven stood up, hood raised over what seemed to be an empty void. It stood there, completely still for what seemed like the longest time.

"Sister?" "Pride?" All of them spoke at the same time.

Four red eyes opened and demon Raven growled at them. "You are no brothers of mine!"

A mass of tentacles swarmed out from underneath her cloak and shot out with tremendous force, breaking through the demons' red shields and encircling their bodies. Wrath glared at Greed. "You have the greatest ideas in the world, brother. Let's just induce her more powerful form to attack us. As if we didn't have enough trouble with her human form already."

Greed shrugged. "I didn't know that her rage would be directed at us. But we can still take her down. Demon or not, she can't possible take all six of us."

The demon brothers gathered their strength and repelled the tendrils of darkness and faced their sister, who had now grown to a monstrous size, her head brushing the top of the dome. Raven howled at them and from her mouth spewed out black energy laced with streaks of crimson light. With their combined strength, the demons blocked it with a red shield and retaliated. Their beam of red energy was met with demon Raven's own dark power, and the beams pushed back and forth, neither able to gain an edge over the other. But the demons still had strength to spare while demon Raven was struggling to hold her own against them. Slowly, she was overwhelmed and flew back as she was struck. Instantly, six pairs of red claws pounded into her and latched on, dragging her down to the ground. Still growling at them, demon Raven let loose a howl of rage, sending them flying back with sound waves alone. But it wasn't enough.

They attacked her again and again until there was nothing left but a very bloody Raven laying on the ground. Besides the broken bones, it seemed that they had also injured several of her internal organs and torn a gash on her throat. Her face was bruised and beaten, her eyes shut tightly, blood dripping down her chin.

"Perhaps we overdid it? She looks very dead to me."

Wrath knelt down and touched her chest. "Her heart still beats. Greed, heal her, and then we'll take her back to see father. Maybe he'll be able to get her demon to work with us."

"I don't think so..." The demons all looked down in shock as Raven's eyes flew open and spoke, somehow, with a torn throat. Teeth bared in rage, Raven rose up and lashed out with her soulself, striking out randomly with supernatural power. The demon brothers backed off slightly but then realized that she wasn't aiming for them at all. The black dome around them began to crumble. Shards of black magic fell on them and the demons hissed, dodging this way and that.

"Later, brothers," she whispered, and disappeared into a portal.

As the dome crashed in around them, the brothers turned back to the spot where Raven should have been, only to find it empty.

"You... idiots!" Wrath hissed at them. "How could you let this happen?"

Lust frowned. "We were distracted. If she had done that at the beginning of the fight, we would've easily stopped her."

"I wasn't even aware that she could still remain conscious, let alone cast spells and shit," Envy muttered. "Besides, what are you blaming us for? You failed to stop her too."

"Cut the chit chat. We've gotta get out of here before we're discovered by those Titans," Greed muttered, and the six of them disappeared into red light.

A moment after they were gone, Raven reappeared on the ground underneath the shadow of a huge rock. She would have smirked, but she didn't have the strength to. _I can't believe I fooled them with that. They should've known that I couldn't have gone far in the condition I was in. It's a good thing I took to wearing this black cloak, or they would have discovered me for sure. But still, camouflaging into the shadows like that... they should feel ashamed. _Raven gasped for breath, feeling like her whole body was on fire. _Am I going to die? _The world blurred once more and a ringing sound in her ears blocked out all other noise. _Better than giving in to my demon side, I suppose. _

She caught sight of a shadow darting towards her, but her eyes began to close against her will. The last thing she saw was the image of a blue bird on the man's chest before everything went black.

* * *

A/N: Raven's pretty strong, isn't she?

I gave her a lot of powers from the comics as well as some from the show, so she's bound to be powerful, but keep in mind that she still only managed to take out two of her brothers before almost going down.

It should also be noted that while demon Raven is more powerful in terms of destructive force, she might not actually be as strong as human Raven because she doesn't take time to calculate and think of the best way to deal with the situations. (After all, demon Raven is notorious for being consumed by Rage and just blasting out stuff everywhere rather than using her mind - this puts her at a disadvantage when outnumbered/overpowered)

Hopefully you enjoyed it, and remember to review!


	4. Wings of Madness

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or any related content from DC Comics yadayadayada

Thanks for all the positive reviews everyone, they are much appreciated. I am also open to critique and plot suggestions, so don't hesitate to comment on those either. (I'm pretty bad at writing battle scenes, I know, I'm working on improving that aspect of my writing)

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

"I'm pretty sure she's dead," Beast Boy looked down at Raven's broken body. Honestly, he didn't know what to feel. It wasn't quite the reunion he had imagined - no, in that one, the would be fighting, and Raven would be beating on him with her demonic form - but here they were, reunited. Sort of. He couldn't help but feel a bit sad, a bit of pity, a bit of disappointment. He had wanted her to be alive, at least.

Nightwing knelt by her body and pulled back her hood. He put a hand on her throat, and detecting nothing, he put a hand to one of her broken wrists. No pulse there either. Lowering his head close to her chest, he listened carefully, shushing Beast Boy when the green Titan was about to speak. It was dead silent as well.

"Well, she's dead," he muttered, standing up. He wasn't sure how to feel either. Everything just seemed so out of place, Raven possibly being the Wraith, almost definitely being the Wraith, a villain, a murderer... and now seeing her there, body broken and bleeding, hell, he had never even seen her get wounded, and now she was dead at his feet, her killer nowhere in sight. He had hated her for a while after she had left, but that hatred had faded into mere resentment, and then faded altogether into... apathy, he supposed. Not that he was ever going to let her run free, but now... she wasn't going to be running anywhere at all.

"You want to check, or shall we call the police and have her taken to the morgue?"

Beast Boy shrugged and lowered his ear to her chest. His hearing was better than Nightwing's, perhaps he could detect something that the other man had not. At first, everything seemed completely silent. He waited for a couple moments, waiting to see if she was going to come alive again. It almost seemed as if both of them _hoped _that she was alive, despite the fact that they weren't friends, actually, they were almost enemies basically, but that was besides the point.

And then he heard it, the faintand highly irregular _lub-dub... lub... dub... lubdub _of her heart. She was still alive.

"Nightwing!" Beast Boy rose up and looked at his friend, who had a relieved expression on his face. "What are we gonna do? Even if she's alive now, she won't last five minutes. And moving her will only shorten her life."

He frowned. "We'll just have to try. The closest hospital is about five minutes away. It'll be a close call, but we might be able to make it." He picked her up very gently, earning him a cough and a light mist of blood from the girl in his arms, and walked carefully to his motorcycle. "Call the hospital now. Tell them to be prepared the instant I arrive."

* * *

"How the hell did she get away from all six of you?" Slade, for some reason, didn't seem angry at all. He was mocking them. Of course, his plan had nothing to do with Raven, so he didn't care at all, but still...

Wrath looked at him darkly and did not reply. Slade shrugged. "Well, that doesn't matter to me. I'm going to proceed with my plan. Care to help me?"

"What's in it for us?"

"I already helped you locate Raven." _Because it suits my own interests, _but he didn't say that part out loud. He didn't want to set off Wrath's temper. Fighting interdimensional demons had never really been his forte. "Perhaps you could help me as well. I already have begun the process of destroy the reputation of the oh so esteemed sir Nightwing, but there is still much to be done if I am to break the city's trust in him."

Wrath raised an eyebrow. "What exactly have you done?"

Slade smirked underneath his mask and turned on the screen behind him. An image of the mayor and many reporters around him appeared.

"... the Titans claim that they have captured the Wraith, yes. Yes, I'm not denying that."

"So, Mr. Mayor, what are you denouncing Nightwing for? Hasn't he protected this city enough times to prove that he's a hero?"

"Yes, well, I have received some tapes from... an anonymous source." Slade chuckled softly at that statement, "I don't disagree that Nightwing tries to help people, but he sent two of his team members to save those escaped villains rather than devoting his full efforts to saving our city's people. It just seems a bit off. Especially since those villains are now wreaking havoc in our city with nobody to stop them. The whole situation reeks of some foul play, if you ask me."

Another reporter stepped up. "It does seem awfully odd that Nightwing would try to save the villains over Jump's citizens, especially considering the harsh stance he has taken towards criminals in the past. But perhaps he has his own reasons for it? Perhaps he can offer some commentary on this situation."

The mayor shook his head, not in disagreement, but disappointment. "800 people dead and every single one of those criminals lived? Not only that, I have another report saying that Starfire, Cyborg, Terra, and Jinx have all gone missing. Nightwing's judgment has usually been good in the past, but he certainly slipped up badly this time."

Everyone looked at each other. It wasn't that anyone really hated the superhero per se, but his behavior had been rather odd in the past few months. More withdrawn than before, it had also been a point of note that there were many more criminals showing up in prisons with serious or permanent injuries, courtesy of Nightwing himself. It was also a common point of understanding that if the Titans failed, it was a reflection of Nightwing's own failure as the leader of the team. Perhaps it was unfair that he receive the majority of the blame, but he was their leader and he had that responsibility as well.

The dark haired hero pounded a fist on his knee. Perhaps it had been a bad idea to send Terra and Jinx to save those villains after all. Now he had the blood of 800 people on his hands as well as four missing Titans to look for. And his only reward had been Raven, who wasn't necessarily even going to turn out to be the Wraith, nor was she necessarily even going to survive. Strike that, it would take a miracle for her to survive all those injuries. _I suppose they have the right to question my judgment. _He hid his face in his just wasn't used to such failure. Slade had played the game of crime and justice much better than he had this time. _Now I know how Bruce must have felt when he was dealing with the Joker. So many people died, taking the blame for Harvey Dent's death, becoming a villain in the eyes of Gotham... Ah, speaking of Bruce... _

As he looked up, he came face to face with the dark knight's penetrating gaze. Batman really had a way of appearing out of nowhere_. _Several of the nearby nurses actually gasped upon seeing him there, Nightwing supposed he had slipped by everyone else completely undetected. He was rather jealous of the way his old mentor could do that.

"What are you doing here?" He frowned at Batman, the tone of his voice quiet but spiteful. The enmity usually was not mutual, but Batman apparently did not want to be messed with today.

"I'm taking Raven back to Gotham," he stated simply.

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. She's in critical condition right now. I highly doubt that she'll even survive or regain consciousness. And even if she does, I can't."

"Why is that?"

"She's a suspect for a serial killer we've been tracking."

Batman raised an eyebrow. "That seems rather unlikely. Care to explain?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Nightwing muttered. "This is _my," _he paused as Beast Boy raised an eyebrow at him. He cleared his throat. "_Our _city, and we'll handle things our way. You can't control me anymore."

Batman frowned. "This isn't about control, Richard."

Nightwing's face darkened. "Don't call me that ever again."

"I'll call you whatever I want, _Robin,_" Batman used his old sidekick's name to emphasize his point. Nightwing stood up and glared at him.

"What was that?"

And then both of them turned as a young female reported walked up to them nervously, holding a microphone out to Nightwing. "Um... sorry if I'm interrupting anything, but could we get a few words on the recent events, Nightwing?"

The hero glared at his old mentor before turning to the reporter. "Slade planned it out better than I had thought," he said, not wanting to admit that he had messed up and played his cards the wrong way. Very wrong. "But rest assured, we'll get him next time."

Batman looked at him suspiciously. "And how are you supposed to account for hundreds of people dead simply because he '_planned it out better than you'_?"

"Will you just butt out!"

Batman's eyes narrowed. Robin-Nightwing- had never taken criticism very well and he rarely if ever admitted he was wrong. Not unlike Batman himself, but still... He also hated being told what to do and most of all, he hated being, at least that was his view, babied by his old mentor, who always seemed to do everything better than he ever could.

"Um..." the reporter backed away, sensing the tension in the air. "Right then... I'll just come back later," and she scurried away.

Nightwing spun around, teeth bared at Batman. "Stay out of my... our... business! You have no right to just come to Jump to tell me what to do and how to deal with our problems! For god's sake, Gotham has a higher crime rate than Jump does! I'd say we're doing a better job than you are!"

"Jump's crime rate was lower to begin with, and your 'higher crime rate' is only .2% if you checked the last report," Batman's voice was darker, almost menacing. "And I did not come here to jump into your business. I merely came to get a friend back."

"_She _is part of our business, and since when was she your friend?! How long have you known her, anyway?"

"That doesn't matter. But you should trust me when I say she's not your murderer. You've got the wrong person."

"We've got plenty of evidence! And you only have your instincts to tell you-"

"And tell me the last time my instincts have been wrong?"

That shut Nightwing up. He had to admit, Bruce was almost never wrong whether it came to crime fighting, business, or even the hearts of women. "Besides," Batman continued, "arguing with me isn't exactly the best thing for your public image. I have a lot more power with the press and the Justice League than you do."

"Is that a threat?"

"Just a warning. Superheroes arguing with each other is never pretty business, and the press has a way of making the less powerful one look like a fool."

"Get out. I'm sick of your self righteousness. Just get out and never come back."

"Or what? You're going to kick me out by force?"

Nightwing took a fighting stance. "If it comes down to it."

Beast Boy looked back and forth between the two men, eyes wide with worry. "Uh... guys... just calm down. Guys?"

"Stay out of it!" They both snapped at him and he cowered away into the corner.

"You're only hurting your own public image, apprehending an innocent girl, and wasting time here when you could be looking for your missing teammates."

Nightwing's eyes narrowed. "I'm not taking orders from you."

Batman sighed. Richard really was quite stubborn sometimes. When he had his mind set on something, he became an immovable object. But Batman was an equally unstoppable force himself. Maybe that was why they butted heads so often. The sense of danger in the air grew and it almost seemed certain that a fight was going to break out. Beast Boy closed his eyes, waiting for the sound of the first blow.

"N-Nightwing, sir?" A timid voice caused them to look towards the doors of the emergency room. Everyone relaxed.

"What is it?" He snapped at the nurse, irritation clear in his voice, though his glare was still directed at the Batman.

"U-um, the patient that you brought in... uh.."

"Out with it!" He yelled a little too loudly and brought a hand to his forehead. "Well?" He said much more gently.

"S-She's awake now if you want to see her. B-But, I-I must ask you to k-keep your v-voice down as s-she's still very weak..." the nurse scuttled away, scared to hell. Usually, giving Nightwing commands while he was pissed off meant instant death. But surprisingly the hero just nodded and looked back at the dark knight who was standing behind him, face stony and impassive.

"I'm going in first. You can speak to her after." He didn't wait for Batman's agreement before pushing open the doors and walking in.

* * *

The world slowly came into focus and Raven sat up, holding a hand to her head. "Ugh..." She felt like she had been run over by a bunch of cars. Wincing, she touched her ribs. No wonder she was having so much trouble breathing. One of her lungs had partially collapsed. _Oh well, it'll heal eventually. Good thing I'm part demon or I'd be out of commission permanently._ _I wonder why my healing trance didn't start though. Probably because I was weakened too much. _She winced again and coughed up a bit of blood.

"You should lie back down," a very familiar voice broke through the pain wracking her mind, and she opened her eyes.

"Robi-" she caught herself. "Nightwing?" Raven was puzzled as to why he sounded so concerned.

"Feeling better?" He asked as she lay back down on the hospital bed.

"You... saved me, didn't you..." she looked at him critically. His hair was now slightly longer, and with the absence of hair gel, it hung about above his shoulders, casting shadows all over his face. The mask hadn't changed one bit, although his face was slightly more square now, not as angular as it had once been. He was also almost a good half a foot taller than her, she estimated, and a lot more muscular, though he wasn't quite as buff as Batman was... yet. His mouth was set in a straight line and with his eyes hidden behind his mask, his face was almost unreadable. But Raven was an empath. It was almost impossible to hide things from her.

"You think... I'm a murderer?" Her mind slowly processed all the information she was taking in. It did make sense, she had to admit. Her brother had set her up really well. But Robin - Nightwing, she had to remember that that was his name now - didn't know about her brothers.

"You sound surprised," he actually sounded surprised himself. He had thought the first thing Raven would do was get angry and defensive. But she genuinely seemed like she was hearing about this for the first time. Of course, she had never been easy to read, so it was possible that she was trying to play him for a fool. He decided to press the issue when she did not respond.

"Unless you have an alibi, I'm going to have to assume the worst-"

"I've been in Gotham for the past few months," she murmured. "Batman has a record of where I've gone the past week," she pointed toward the ragged remains of her black cloak and Nightwing walked over to it, examining the cloth carefully. There was a small device attached to the hem of the cloak and it still seemed to be active. A tracking device. No less from the Batman. So he had been suspicious of Raven after all.

Nightwing frowned. Well this threw a hitch in his theory. There was no proof where Raven had been the past few months, but there was proof that she had remained in Gotham for all of last week while murders had still been going on in Jump. He was well aware that she could use her soulself to travel around without physically having to move, but there was a time limit on how long it could remain out of her body, and there was no way it could travel all the way to Jump and back to Gotham in that time frame. So unless she could be in two places at once - a feat that nobody, not even Trigon had managed - she wasn't the murderer. _Unless she managed to remove Batman's tracker or she wore some clothes without a device on them but... Bruce wouldn't be so careless. He'd keep an eye on her. _As much as he hated to admit it, his mentor was very capable when it came to keeping an eye on things he distrusted. So it didn't necessarily disprove that Raven was not the one he was looking for, but it certainly opened up a bunch of possibilities. Maybe he really would ask for Raven's help after all. He looked back at her and saw that her eyes were closed and she seemed to be sleeping. He couldn't blame her. With all those injuries, she was bound to be exhausted. But Raven had always been a very light sleeper and she sensed his gaze on her. One violet eye opened.

"Who did this to you?" Nightwing asked. "We've been looking for something that we've called the 'Wraith'. When you searched my mind you saw an image of it. It looks just like you do with your hood up, but its eyes and face don't show at all. And it's about your height."

"Ironic that you'd call it a Wraith," her voice was a mere whisper and he had to lean in closer to catch her words. "His name is Wrath. He's one of my six brothers," she broke off and coughed up a bit of blood. "Sorry... my throat can't take much more talking right now..."

Nightwing's eyes widened, but he nodded and said nothing more. _Raven has brothers? Why didn't she ever tell us about them before? This is bad, really bad... I'll have to get more information from her later. And I'll have to make sure she's telling me the truth. She's always been good at hiding things. _

As he left the room, Batman passed by him, exchanging only a brief glance with Nightwing. But it had been enough for him to tell that the leader of the Titans was starting to have his doubts about Raven being a criminal. He entered Raven's room and she turned to face him. They simply stared at each other wordlessly, not needing language to exchange any information.

Her eyes widened slightly. _What are you doing here? _She seemed to say.

He bent his head. _Making sure you're safe. _He pointed behind him, where Nightwing had just disappeared from view. _From him. _

Raven rose an eyebrow and he could sense a smile in her eyes. _He's always been edgy and obsessive. _

Batman nodded. _I know. That's why I had to be sure. _

She actually smirked this time. _You actually care about me? _

He shrugged. _I suppose. _He pointed at her and then back at himself. _We're alike, you and I. _

Raven closed her eyes. _I suppose so. Now can I get some rest? _

The dark knight smirked as well and turned to leave.

* * *

Nightwing caught sight of six figures cloaked in black darting into the night as he left the hospital. He looked around carefully and saw a man's dead body on top of the roof of an apartment building; evidently, they had been in the process of carving up his corpse, but he had interrupted them. Feeling the rage boil up inside him, Nightwing jumped up to see the condition that the dead man was in... he knelt down beside the body and checked for a pulse, but he really was very dead. Gritting his teeth, he rushed after the retreating shadows, jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the bright light of the full moon. His pursuit was not missed and police sirens blared up in several directions; not a minute later, there were several policemen on the rooftops in hot pursuit of both Nightwing and the shadowy figures, as well as a couple left behind to examine the dead body.

"Stop!" He heard some shouting behind him. "Show yourself!"

"It's me, Nightwing! I'm pursuing these murderers! Stay back and don't get in my way!"

"Wait!" The police continued chasing after him, but he quickly outpaced them.

Closing in on the shadows, he jumped down after them into a dark alleyway and looked into the darkness. They stood there, backs turned to them, and seemed to be talking amongst themselves.

"Stop right there!" The shadows paused in their conversation and turned slightly toward the hero. Nightwing squinted and could barely make out their dark shapes in the absence of light. He tensed up, unsure of whether they would attack him or not. "Who are you?"

No reply except for heavy breathing.

"Do you know who Raven is? Are you this... Wrath?" It was still silent, but he swore he could see red eyes. _Demons. _He thought to himself. "I know who you are. Don't try to hide it from me. You're Raven's brothers, aren't you? You're the ones who almost killed her. What are your goals? What are you doing here?"

Still no answer. It was like talking to a brick wall. Nightwing swore at them mentally but gave off no sign of irritation on the outside. After all, he hadn't technically proven that they had done anything wrong. Until they made any move to attack him, he couldn't do anything to them. There was no doubt in his mind, however, that they were evil and they were the ones who had been going around killing people, like the man on the rooftop.

"I'm going to have to ask you to step into the light and show me photo identification and proof of citizenship," he spoke rather calmly considering how agitated he was on the inside. If these really were demons, he'd have to be ready at any sign of attack or he was toast. Hopefully the police would be able to find this location soon.

Nightwing was startled by the oddly human sounding laughter from the darkness. _Maybe they're half demons like Raven. _"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing," the very human voice replied. "It's just funny that you think you can force us to obey your commands, mortal. What makes you think you can take on all six of us when even our sister stood no chance?"

_So it is them after all. _He took a couple steps back and drew out his staff waiting for them to attack. But they didn't move. "Just get out of here before you get hurt, puny ant. You won't be able to stop us. Nobody can stop us."

"Shut up!" Nightwing practically growled at them. He had had enough of people usurping his authority and hurting his friends or once friends. First Slade screwing everything up, then Batman coming to control him and lecture him, finding Raven almost dead... _I'm not going to let these punks get away with this. _"This is your last warning. Get out here, now!"

Six pairs of very demonic looking eyes turned towards him. "And what are you going to do if we don't?"

Something inside of Nightwing snapped. "I'll fucking kill you."

He jumped into the middle of them and began beating on them with his staff, not knowing, not caring why they did not fight back. The demons, he thought they were half demons at least, began to scream, pleading with him, begging for their lives.

"No! I'm sorry! Please! What did we do?"

"You almost killed my _friend,_" he growled, and slammed into one of them with his staff, feeling the satisfying crunch of breaking bones with the blow. For some reason, he had imagined that half demons would be more resilient than normal people, but he guessed he was wrong. "You terrorize my city, kill my people, and you think you'll get away with it?"

"But... but... heroes aren't supposed to live for revenge -" one of the shadows was choked off as Nightwing grabbed its throat and crushed its windpipe. He hissed down at them. "Not so tough now, are you? And you thought you could take me."

"No! Please!" Another scream and another one of them fell as Nightwing's staff made contact with what seemed to be its neck. Only _very_ rarely did the hero kill criminals, and that was only when they had done something personal to him or his friends. As Robin, he never would have done something like that, no matter how much he wanted to, but since taking on the persona of Nightwing, his personality had taken a darker this case, he had simply had enough of everyone making a fool of him. And besides, these were demons. He definitely was justified in killing them, right?

"No! What are you doing! Stop!" Their muffled screams rose up into the skies and only served to infuriate him more.

"I bet you didn't stop when your victims screamed for mercy," he whispered wickedly at them. "You certainly didn't hold back on your sister."

Another bloodcurdling scream as Nightwing kicked one of them viciously underneath the chin, snapping the thing's head back and breaking its brainstem instantly. The remaining two huddled in the corner, cowering in fear.

And suddenly there was a spotlight on Nightwing and he found himself surrounded by police.

"What the hell are you doing?" A police man pulled the superhero back before he could strike again.

He turned around, eyes blazing in anger. "What the hell are _you _doing? I'm killing these demons who have been murdering innocent people! I've finally caught the murderers and you want me to stop?"

"Nightwing-"

"I understand that killing, even if they are criminals, is bad, but for god's sake, these are demons! We can't simply just contain-"

"Nightwing! Take a closer look! Have you lost your mind?"

The Titan turned back and looked at the two remaining cloaked figures huddled on the ground. He pulled the cloaks roughly off their heads and saw that they were just children, and just normal human ones at that. Nothing supernatural about them at all. His eyes widened in shock. He looked around again at the other four he had killed, four perfectly ordinary humans, and the enormity of what he had just done didn't quite register in his mind. _This has got to be a joke. There's no way these were just ordinary people. They even said that... no way... _

"How is this even possible?" He murmured out loud. "I didn't... I didn't mean to... I was so certain they were demons..." He looked back at the police. Many of them merely closed their eyes and shook their heads at him, disappointed.

"What were you thinking? And don't tell me you can't tell the difference between a demon and a normal human."

"They must have been controlled by someone else or something. They were telling me what they did to- argh!" He pounded his fists on the ground and knelt before the bodies of the dead people. The policeman behind him sighed.

"Well, I don't think the chief will order us to arrest you, considering what you've done for us in the past. And clearly you didn't mean to murder innocent people, but it's still homicide, Nightwing. We can't just cover this one up for you. It has to be reported."

"I know. Thanks for all your help," he muttered gloomily. A new rage had begun to boil up inside him, a hateful, all consuming vengeance that already was breaking past his shock at murdering innocent people. He had failed twice. But now he knew exactly what he was up against. And he was going to bring them down, no matter what the costs. _There's only one person I know of who can control so many peoples' minds so efficiently besides Raven. Those red eyes, the way he manipulated them and me... it's gotta be Brother Blood. _He slammed his fist into a nearby wall. _Slade, Brother Blood, Trigon's sons, what's next? _He almost wanted to laugh at how bad the situation was. More than half of his team was gone, dead or alive, he had no clue, he had lost an honorary Titan, and several extremely powerful villains were out to wreak havoc on Jump city.

"Come on, Nightwing. Swallow your pride for once. All of us can tell that you've been exhausted for a long time with all the crime fighting you've been doing. For what it seems like, the whole situation isn't something you can handle alone anymore. Maybe it's time to call the Justice League and have them-"

"No!" He turned around and the policeman stepped back, frightened by the intensity and vengeance in Nightwing's expression. "I'll deal with this myself." _I'll show those Justice Leaguers that I'm just as good as any of them. _Leaving the police behind to clean up the mess, he jumped up and disappeared into the night.

* * *

"Richard?... Richard? Earth to Richard?" Beast Boy walked into the Titans' common room to find Nightwing sprawled on the couch, apparently asleep. But he knew his leader well enough to know that he would never be able to sleep after the events that had transpired earlier.

"Dude, I know how bad you feel about what happened, but you gotta cheer up man. You didn't mean to kill those people." Nightwing still did not respond. Beast Boy sighed and tried again. "Dude, you're a _hero. _You can't get all depressed because of something like that. Richard, this city needs you. I need you. Star, Cy, and Terra need you. We're gonna kick Slade's ass and save our friends and the city. Stop worrying."

"Stop calling me Richard."

Beast Boy face palmed. Nightwing was being obstinate again. "You gotta stop trying to do everything by yourself. I mean, I know Slade's like your super big ultra baddie arch enemy, but that doesn't mean you have to take him on alone. Your friends... err, I'm the only one left, so I guess friend?... is here to help you too. We're a _team, _Richard."

"I didn't tell you my real name just so you could use it all the time. It was a symbol of my trust. Nothing more." Nightwing grumbled, trying to evade giving Beast Boy the response that he wanted. In all honesty, he didn't want to talk about the whole crisis at all. He didn't want to be reminded of how badly he had failed. And he didn't want to worry his only remaining friend more than he had to. Of course, Beast Boy had always been persistent. He had even managed to get a couple shows of affection from Raven with his tenacity in pursuing her. He wasn't the type to just abandon his friends.

"You gotta talk to me, Dick."

Nightwing sat up. "Don't use that nickname. It's just... not right."

Beast Boy laughed at that. "Knew that would work. Lighten up, Rich. It's not like you to be so moody. Here, let's play a game or something."

"No thanks," Nightwing got up and began walking away. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep. 'night." He left Beast Boy standing there, now worried more than ever about his leader, who was acting very strangely indeed.

* * *

Raven sat up, her body feeling very stiff and sore, but many of her major injuries gone. Even just one night in a healing trance worked wonders, although she wasn't completely healed yet. She tried to get out of the hospital bed, stepping onto the floor, and _shit. One of my ankles is still broken. _She felt a shot of pain through her leg and cursed her life silently. She bumped into the side of the bed as she tried to sit back down and let out a little yelp - part of her hip was still broken as well. Several of the light bulbs above her head exploded and Raven groaned in frustration. Everything was just going so wrong these days. She tried facepalming and wonder of wonders, her wrist was still broken as well!

"Having a bit of trouble?" She looked up at the doorway, where the deep voice had come from.

"What are you still doing here? You should be back in Gotham already."

"Richard," Batman cleared his throat, "Nightwing and I had a little chat. He's getting out of control." Batman took the liberty of switching on the TV in the room and flipping to one of the standard news channels, which was showing pictures of Nightwing standing over the dead bodies of several innocent people, looking very shocked... and angry.

Raven's eyes widened but she said nothing. Honestly, they all knew that Richard Grayson was capable of doing such things, but nobody had imagined that the day would come when he would just... lose it. Raven sighed and bowed her head. The Robin she knew would never have killed anyone unless it was absolutely necessary to stopping them, like that Kardiak monster, or Trigon, or monsters like those things. He had been so adamant about them being _vigilantes, _not law enforcement. He had said that what separated them from the criminals they locked up was the fact that they did not kill, maim, or harm, especially not purposefully. That had been the main point of tension between him... the whole team... and Raven, after all. It wasn't something she had forgotten. But Robin had changed so much since becoming Nightwing. It was like he was a different person altogether. _And yet he had seemed so familiar yesterday when he was talking to me... like he actually cared whether I lived or died, and not just because he wanted answers from me... _She looked up to find a rather amused Batman smirking at her.

"Do you always zone out like that?"

Raven blushed faintly and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Care to help me up? I need to take a shower and get into some new clothes."

Batman obliged and put one of her arms around his shoulder but then found that he was much taller than her and it wasn't going to work out. He slung her over his shoulder instead, earning him a grimace from the violet haired girl. He forced down a laugh - Raven could make some really funny faces sometimes. They moved down the hallway undetected, since the Batman could never be seen unless he wanted to be, and he pointed her towards the women's bathroom.

"Now, I presume you can handle yourself? I'm not exactly... welcome in there."

Raven nodded and he set her down gently, taking care to support her as she gingerly tested her broken ankle.

"You leaving for Gotham now?"

"Yeah." He gave her a black cellphone with his emblem on it. "Call me if you need anything."

They made eye contact, that was their way of saying goodbye, and then he was gone. Raven blinked twice. Somehow, he had simply turned, cape swirling behind him in a wave of darkness and he had just... disappeared. _What the hell? _She smirked. _You sure you're human, Batman? Even I can't just disappear like that. _Leaning against one wall, she hobbled inside and found an empty shower stall. Grabbing a clean hospital gown, she walked inside and let the warm water run over her aching body.

Raven had always hated her body, and not just because of her imagined lack of sex appeal - not that she really cared about something like that - but because it reminded her of the demon blood running through her veins. Grey skin, though she had gotten paler over the years and now her skin tone was almost a pure alabaster. Purple hair, like what the hell was that? Brown and white certainly didn't mix to make purple... whatever. Once upon a time, she had hated having long hair, but now she didn't mind it as much, and had let it grown to slightly past her shoulders, though she still couldn't stand having as much as say, Starfire did. But overall, she hadn't changed much in the two years since she had left the Titans. She still lacked the _sexy curves of Starfire's body, still have a non existent bust, hell, I look more like a boy than a girl. But what do I care? Not like anyone's interested in a fucking demon girl anyway, except for maybe my brothers. Especially Lust..._ She shuddered at that thought. He was both the ugliest and the sexiest out of all of them at the same time. Good looking, but in a strange way, like the beauty was superficial. Well, then there was Wrath, who was actually gorgeous, in her opinion at least... She banged her head against the wall. Her own Lust emotion was acting up.

She wrapped a towel around herself and peeked out of the curtain to see if anyone was there. She didn't know why she was so self conscious, but she was what she was. Stepping out gingerly, she looked at her own reflection in the mirror. Okay, so maybe she did look a tiny bit more womanly now. And a little bit older, but that might have just been because of her longer hair. Demons weren't supposed to age after reaching the age of 17, and that was true for half demons as well. She looked at the dark bags under her eyes and the shadows cast on her now slightly lighter violet eyes... she hoped to god that her irises weren't a lighter shade because of the influence of the demon inside her. Whenever the demon inside her took over, she could feel the mauve shade turn to scarlet accompanied by excruciating pain. She looked in the mirror again and suddenly the four burning eyes stared back at her, brimming with malice. Raven tried to take a step back but her broken ankle wouldn't let her and she fell back, groaning in pain. Her demon always made her so jumpy.

"Oh dear!" Raven looked up and saw a nurse walking towards her. "We were wondering where you had gone. You shouldn't be doing these things by yourself yet, sweetie." The nurse bent down and looked at Raven's swollen ankle, shaking her head. "Wait here. I'll go get some bandages. Anything else you need?"

Raven fought down the blush that was slowly spreading across her cheeks. She hated being caught in moments of weakness, especially by normal humans. She shook her head and the nurse gave her a smile before leaving the room to get some medical supplies.

Raven was tempted to pound her fist on the ground, but she suppressed her frustration, not wanting to injure herself more for no reason. Actually, strike that. She didn't care whether she injured herself or not. The scars on her wrists would attest to that. So she pounded her fist on the ground, needing some way to vent the frustration inside of her and felt the pain shoot through her arm. She winced as the mirror in front of her cracked - she had less control of her powers when in pain, after all.

_It's okay. Calm down. Focus on your center, let go of all of your emotions. _"Azarath metrion zinthos..." She breathed out slowly. "Azarath... metrion... zinthos..." Her breathing became deep and regular. All of the pain in her body faded away to nothingness and as her eyes closed, she felt the peace settle about her mind. Her voice became no more than a quiet, soothing hum in the comfortable atmosphere of the warm bathroom.

And then she was interrupted by the sound of a door opening.

"I'm back," a gruff voice murmured.

_That doesn't sound like a woman... or a man for that matter. _Raven's eyes flew open as she realized it. She tried to scramble backwards, but her broken ankle and wrist would not allow it. Crashing back to the ground, she looked up hatefully at the shadowy figure above her.

"Fuck off, Wrath."

Her brother raised an eyebrow and kicked her hard. Raven forced herself to remain silent as he continued kicking her, breaking many of the ribs that had just recently healed. When he finally let up, she was gasping for breath at his feet, face contorted with pain. He squatted and grabbed a fistful of her hair, turning her head to face him.

"You're not the only one with a bad temper, sister."

She spat in his face.

"Big mistake."

He muffled her screams and began beating her, tearing into her body with his claws, poking at the sanctity of her mind with his soulself, nearly tearing off both of her arms, leaving deep, gashing wounds in her body... and then his hand raised far above her body and plunged into her heart, and

* * *

"Raven? Miss Raven! Snap out of it!" The nurse shook the girl gently and was relieved when one eye slowly opened.

"Ugh..." she moaned. "I... passed out?"

The nurse looked at her, concerned. "You were just staring out into empty space, and then your eyes rolled up into the back of your head. I tried to wake you up but you started shaking and you looked really angry so I backed off. And then you screamed and I realized you weren't mad at me so..."

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know," the nurse replied. "It's just that whenever I saw you with the other Titans, you always seemed to be so aloof and moody. I figured you were the type of girl with a bad temper," she gave a sheepish grin as Raven glared at her. "But you saved my daughter twice." She gave Raven a real smile this time, and the girl felt something stir within her heart. "I'm really grateful for what you've done in the past, even if you've moved elsewhere. I... heard about the fight you had with Nightwing and the others."

Raven bit her lip. "Yeah..." was all she said.

The nurse looked rather uncomfortable and tried to change the subject. She moved down to Raven's ankle and began bandaging it. "Tell me if it hurts, okay?" After finishing on Raven's ankle, the nurse moved up to her wrist and began wrapping that too. "You know," she spoke suddenly. "You're the most resilient girl I've ever seen. I didn't realize it before because you didn't even look like you were in pain, but your wrist and ankle are broken, aren't they?"

"And my hip," Raven muttered darkly.

The nurse looked surprised. "You sure you're human? Nobody I know can take that much pain and still be okay. All those wounds you had yesterday were enough to kill three people, let alone one-"

"I'm a _metahuman,_" Raven emphasized the word and the nurse merely nodded, knowing that the _metahuman _wanted some peace and quiet.

Officially, that was what she was, at least. She didn't like to lie, but if word got out that she was part demon, the daughter of Trigon no less, she'd be hunted and killed. Sure, the Justice League knew, but most people didn't and she wanted to keep it that way. Besides, she was sort of telling the truth. A half demon was kind of a metahuman. She thanked the nurse quietly as she helped Raven get dressed and pulled her arm around her shoulder. And unlike with the Batman, because they were relatively the same height, it actually worked this time. Raven cursed silently to herself at being in such close proximity with another person, but the nurse was helping her after all. Even if she hated being touched, she supposed it was okay in this instance.

"Miss Raven?" The nurse spoke suddenly.

"Hmm?'

"Hospital gowns also come in black, if you prefer that color."

Raven smirked at that. She supposed she was famous for being a goth chick, even though she actually wasn't.

* * *

"Feeling better?" Nightwing knelt by Raven's bed, a slight bit of amusement showing on his face when he saw that she was wearing a black hospital gown.

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Hard to feel any worse than I did two days ago." Although she did feel much better after having another night's rest in her healing trance.

"Right." The amusement died away quickly enough and he looked serious. Very serious. "I need your help," he murmured, as if he didn't want to admit it. But he had to ask for her help out of necessity.

"For?"

He turned on the TV and gestured. ABC was broadcasting live from downtown, showing both the stock market exchange and the giant Bank of America branch surrounded by Slade's robots. It didn't take a genius to figure out that there were a bunch of people being held hostage inside the buildings. Slade himself was on the big screen that normally displayed the stock market, gesturing behind him to Starfire, Terra, Cyborg, and Jinx. The captured Titans were all imprisoned in separate force fields that hung right above a gigantic boiling vat of acid.

"... So, Nightwing, the choice is up to you. Save your friends or save the people of Jump. Make your choice wisely. But... do make haste. You only have an hour before I... pull the trigger." The screen went black.

Nightwing turned back to Raven. "And that's how it is."

She frowned. "What do you need me for? Can't Beast Boy take care of the people and you go after Slade?"

"I wish it were that simple. But there's another side of the story. Brother Blood's working with him too. I don't know where he'll be, but I need you to help us fight him."

"Where do you want me to go?"

Nightwing sighed. "We're all going to go to the bank and the stock market exchange. Can't afford another fiasco with a bunch of people dying because I was careless."

"Then who's going to save your team?"

"The police are."

"You trust that they'll be able to handle Slade?"

"They'd better, or else," Nightwing had a very dark expression on his face. Almost murderous. Raven muttered something under her breath about incompetence and how the Titans were practically doomed. She looked up after a moment.

"Well, get out of my room so I can get dressed. I'll teleport us downtown after I'm done."

* * *

As refreshing as it felt to fight alongside Robin, now Nightwing, in her old Titan's outfit, there were other pressing issues that occupied Raven's mind. As she and Nightwing emerged from the dark portal, they rushed out into the street to where the police had set up a barricade. Some of them looked rather surprised to see the girl in the indigo cloak floating beside Nightwing, but if they had anything to say, they kept it to themselves. Although both she and Nightwing did get more than one wary glance in their direction.

"Report, what's the situation?" Nightwing turned to one of the officers.

"Sir. So far we have only seen the robot commandos that you told us about. Your friend went to the stock market exchange not too long ago, and several squads were already dispatched to the hideout where the other Titans are being kept."

Nightwing nodded. "Good. Raven, we're going to free the hostages at the bank fast. Take a defensive position and make sure nobody gets hurt. Unlike before, these robots are armed with guns."

Raven nodded and shrouded them both in darkness. A moment later, they were inside the giant bank and Raven stuck her head out of the portal to survey the situation. Luckily, it seemed that all the hostages were being kept in a large group in plain view of the police, which meant that it would be easy to cover them all with a shield while Nightwing took down the robots. They dropped down from the ceiling and Raven instantly threw up a shield while Nightwing struck first, catching the robots by surprise. A mere shadow, he took them down quickly and efficiently while Raven guarded his back, blocking the whizzing bullets with black shields. As the robots swarmed in, she used her soul self to strike out at a few of them, all the while maintaining her shields and eventually the robots' numbers began to visibly dwindle.

And then Raven sensed something behind them both. "Nightwing!" She called out and he spun around, coming face to face with Brother Blood.

"So you were here after all," Nightwing knocked a couple robots out of his way as he strode toward the villain.

"Indeed I was. And am," he stole a glance at Raven, who was beginning to struggle with the effort of maintaining her shield. "I see you brought an old friend with you. It matters not. Even if she has gotten better at... oh what's the word I'm looking for... multitasking those shadows, she can't possibly attack me with full force while defending all those people. And you, Nightwing, should know that you can't possibly fight me one on one."

"We'll see about that."

He engaged Brother Blood before the other man could use his magic, fighting with furious speed and power. The old man, though agile, was unable to withstand Nightwing's powerful assault and took a vicious knee to the face. He stood up, clutching a broken nose, and opened his mouth to say something. The Titan did not give him the chance, however, and pummeled him into the wall with an array of kicks, elbows, punches, everything he had. And then Brother Blood blasted him back with a ray of red energy, shocking him momentarily.

He pressed Nightwing back, using his telekinesis to throw random objects at the hero, sending energy blasts everywhere. But Nightwing easily dodged them all and counterattacked again, ducking under a couple kicks and sweeping Brother Blood's feet from underneath him. But before he could deliver another blow, he also fell down, tripped by a plane of red energy. The villain's eyes glowed red and he attempted to invade Nightwing's mind, trying to overcome the hero's spirit to control his mind. But Nightwing's iron will was not broken so easily, and both of them stood there, struggling desperately against each other in a mental battle. And then one of the robots fired a bullet at Nightwing's back before Raven could shield it, and the hero fell forward, clutching his right shoulder, wincing in pain.

Brother Blood smiled wickedly and pressed his advantage, kicking Nightwing this way and that, sending him crashing through the windows at the front of the bank before drawing him back in with his telekinetic powers. He tried sending Nightwing flying into the ceiling with his telekinesis, but the hero had recovered somewhat and resisted it; he knew that as long as his mind was strong enough, none of Brother Blood's mind techniques would work on him. Dodging a couple of punches from the robots, he grabbed their arms and threw them at the villain, obscuring his sight momentarily. And then Nightwing leapt into battle again, pounding the old man relentlessly, feeling the bones break beneath his fists, sending him crashing down to the ground. And it didn't stop there. Blinded in a fit of fury, Nightwing kept pounding the now unconscious man, punching as hard as he could, throwing blows so vicious that his knuckles began bleeding with the force of his strikes, but he didn't stop.

"Nightwing!" Raven called out suddenly and dropped her shield as she took down the last of the robots. "Stop!"

He paid no attention to her and kept pounding away.

"Richard!" She restrained his hand with a black tentacle and he turned to look at her, the rage still evident on his face. And then he looked back at the broken old man at his feet and realized just how lost in fury he had become. He relaxed slightly and looked back at Raven, who, despite her impassive demeanor, he could sense a bit of worry radiating off from.

He took a deep breath. "Sorry. And don't call me Richard."

Raven nodded slowly. "You've gotten strong... to think you'd be able to beat Brother Blood so easily. He was tough back in the day."

Nightwing winced at the pain in his right shoulder. "Not that easily." And then his eyes widened as he felt a hand on his back and the pain faded.

"Better?"

"Yeah, I forgot all about the fact that you can heal people." He turned to look at her and saw that she had become a little paler. _Right. If memory serves me correctly, she heals you by taking away your pain experiences it herself to a lesser degree. _"Sorry," he muttered again. "Just because I got hurt doesn't mean you need to-"

"It's fine. Shall we go check on Beast Boy?"

Nightwing looked outside as the police began tentatively approaching the bank after the sounds of fighting had stopped. "Yeah, let's go."

* * *

"Shit," Nightwing said as he stared at his green friend. He was laying down on an ambulance bed while a team of paramedics were pumping painkillers and drugs into his blood to stop the bleeding. Ever since Slade had discovered the joys of using automatic handguns, his robots had become a lot deadlier, and the toll it had taken on Beast Boy proved that.

"Don't... worry... about... me..." Beast Boy managed to gasp out. "Go save... the others..."

One of the paramedics looked up at Nightwing, who did not seem to want to leave. "He might not make it," the man said simply, a sorrowful look on his face.

"Damn it Beast Boy. I told you to take it easy and wait for us to back you up!"

"Heh. Dude... I destroyed... those stupid... robots. Had to... protect... the people..." His voice trailed off as the paramedics started scrambling around.

"BP dropping fast! I can't get a pulse!"

"Get the AED!"

"Stand aside," Raven's monotone sounded from behind Nightwing and the medical team looked up, suspicious expressions on their faces.

"It's alright. She knows what she's doing," Nightwing mentioned, and the paramedics backed away.

Tracing her fingers over the wounds, Raven determined which ones would be the most life threatening and which ones the paramedics could handle. But her face blanched as she realized the extent of the damage that he had taken. Because she knew so much about the human body, she also knew that it would take a miracle to save him. _  
_

"Azarath metrion zinthos," she breathed out and prepared herself for the pain.

As some of the bullet wounds disappeared, she gradually became paler and paler, eyes squeezed tight with the pain that wracked her body. Honestly, she didn't know how he was managing to deal with the sheer amount of agony that his wounds were causing him... well actually she did. (A/N: A set of hormones called endorphins that reduce pain and induce pleasure... you can release these by eating chocolate!)

Raven fell back and almost hit the ground, but one of the paramedics caught her right before she landed. Whispering her thanks to him, she slowly stood up again and turned back to Beast Boy. She placed two fingers on his forehead to check his condition. _Not enough... _

Her hands glowed brightly as more of the bullet wounds disappeared. Sweat ran down her face with the effort of healing him, but eventually there was a single beep from the EKG. And then another and another, and finally they had a regular heartbeat. There were sighs of relief all around. Raven held a hand to her head, feeling as if she had been shot ten times. Well, considering she had removed a total of _26 _bullet wounds, that wasn't too bad. Beast Boy had his resilience to thank for his life; had anyone else been shot that many times, it was pretty much assured death. Perhaps besides Cyborg.

She turned back to Nightwing after she had caught her breath. "He's not going to be able to help us. We'll have to take Slade by ourselves."

He looked at her, slightly concerned. "Are you okay? You're as pale as a ghost. You can just take me there and I'll fight him-"

"I know you're strong, but this is Slade we're talking about. You'll need my help," she murmured, her voice a little too faint for Nightwing's liking. But he wasn't going to protest since his friends' lives were in danger. He prepared himself as the chill of Raven's portal engulfed him and they were off again.

* * *

"I can't get in," Raven murmured, as the pair reemerged just outside of Slade's hideout.

As they appeared, they immediately had a bunch of guns pointed at them until the police got a better look at who it was. Nightwing had a very ugly look on his face.

"I trusted you guys with my friends' lives! What are all of you doing just standing out here uselessly! Blow up that entrance and storm his hideout!"

"Calm down," Raven's soft voice quelled his rage a little bit. "Even I couldn't just teleport in. This isn't something they can handle. I'm betting my brother set this up."

Nightwing growled but stood still as Raven probed at the entrance with her soulself. It seemed to be guarded by some sort of magic puzzle in the form of invisible magic letters scattered about the face of the door. But they were written in demon script, which she hadn't studied in a couple years. Raven frowned and tried to remember what those letters stood for.

"Hurry up! We don't have much time!" Nightwing yelled at her, unable to contain his nervousness. Raven glared at him.

"I can't concentrate when you do that," she stated flatly and turned back to the door.

Five letters written in red magic... wait a second... _duh. Of course he'd use his own name. _W-R-A-T-H...

The letters slid into place and the door opened.

"Alright, the plan is simple. While Raven and I keep Slade busy, you will go and free the Titans," Nightwing barked out orders at the police before turning back to Raven.

"I'm sure he has some sort of mechanism to drop them into that pot of acid. See if you can find his trigger for it and disable it or something. Or better yet, just get a hold of those force fields and move them away from the acid."

"Okay. You ready?"

Nightwing did not answer and ran off into the darkness of Slade's hideout. Raising her hood, Raven followed him.

* * *

"I was wondering when you'd show up," Slade didn't even bother to turn around as a swarm of people ran into his hideout.

"Slade," the amount of malice in Nightwing's voice was frightening, even to Raven. "Give up. There's no way you're getting out of this one."

"Oh, isn't there?" He drew out a trigger from his pocket. "Your friends' lives are in my hands. I can kill them just by pressing this button. You wouldn't want that now, would you?" And then his eyes flew open as the trigger broke apart.

"Enough of your games, Slade," Raven's eyes flashed white and then returned to normal. "This ends now."

"So you've improved the speed of your spells. Impressive," he said. "But, you will find that people are rather... incompetent."

"What's that supposed to mean-"

"Shut up!" Nightwing suddenly jumped in before Raven could finish her sentence and kicked the villain back. "I'll take Slade! See if you can't get them free!" He blocked one of Slade's kicks and turned his full attention toward the villain.

Meanwhile, Raven rushed over to the force fields containing the Titans. Starfire, Cyborg, and Terra were all shouting from inside, looking slightly scared of her but more so of the boiling acid beneath them. And then she turned her eyes on Jinx and they made eye contact. She sensed something from the other girl that she hadn't from the others, a dark pain gnawing inside her, a mixture of conflicted feelings and uncertainty. _I certainly understand what that feels like... _

Jinx looked back at her with curious eyes, wondering why the former Titan had her attention fixed on her. Sure, when she had still been with the HIVE, they had always somehow ended up fighting each other, and Raven had beaten her pretty badly most of the time, but they had had minimal contact afterwards and none at all after Raven had left. _So why do I have her attention now? Damn it, you can look at me all you want later! Just get us out of here! _

Raven must have heard her or something, because she tore her gaze away from the pink girl and back towards the spherical force fields. They were suspended by chains from the ceiling, but the chains had all sorts of weird symbols on them. _Looks like demon script again. Wrath must have done this too. _She extended her soulself to try to engulf the chains and fields but was thrown back as soon as it got within a meter of the symbols. _Looks like I can't use my powers. He's put up some sort of barrier, my magic can't even get close to them. We'll have to do this the hard way. __Knowing my brother, he'll have put symbols on the force fields as well, so we have to manually get them out of there. __  
_

Dropping into a portal, she reappeared on the catwalk leading to the fields, where a bunch of policemen had already gathered.

"So? What are we supposed to do?"

"Well... my powers don't work on those things. We have to get them out of there manually somehow."

"Cut the chains?"

"No, that would be too dangerous. See if you can't break open those force fields. I'll go help Nightwing for now."

"I don't think so," a voice sounded from behind her and suddenly a couple officers were thrust out of the way as a particularly large one loomed over her.

_Wait a second... that's no police officer... _Raven barely dodged aside as Lust extended his soulself in the form of a red sword. The police reacted after a moment, shooting at the demon, but he blocked them off with a shield.

"Wrath said you'd be here," Lust grinned wickedly at her. "I said you wouldn't. But I guess I was wrong, wasn't I."

"And why isn't he here himself?"

"Father was... not happy to learn of our failure. I was the lucky one who got to stay behind to take care of you. My brothers, not so much."

Raven could not help but feel a little pity for her demon brothers. Trigon's rage was never a pretty sight. She looked on as Lust morphed back into his demon form, dispelling the illusion that he had cast on them. _Manipulation of the five senses... an annoying ability, but as long as I keep my mind sharp, it won't work on me- _"What the hell?"

Raven raised a shield as a shower of bullets came at her this time. Disappearing into a portal, she reemerged in the shadowed areas of Slade's hideout, catching her breath. _He must have tricked them into thinking that I was him and he was me. I won't be able to fight near all those police. _

Lust followed her quickly enough, towering over her in the darkness. Striking out in a flurry of red claws, he was met with Raven's dark shield and then thrown back by a blast of black energy.

"You can't possibly beat me one on one, Lust. Even Wrath isn't much of a match for me."

Lust grinned at her. "Yeah. That's true. But I don't need to beat you. I just need to stall for time," he gestured behind him to the police officers, who were busy hacking away at the chains holding up the force fields. "I might not be able to fool you with my illusions, but I can certainly fool them."

Both Raven and Nightwing looked up from their respective fights as the screeching sound of metal cutting into metal echoed throughout the hideout.

"Those _idiots! _What are they doing?!" Nightwing dodged one of Slade's blows but took a heavy punch to the stomach.

"Pay attention, boy. I'm your opponent. And besides, I warned you about incompetence, didn't I? How ironic. The ones you trusted to save your friends are now going to kill them because they're too stupid to use their brains."

Slade easily dodged a couple of Nightwing's kicks and counter attacked, sending the hero crashing into a wall. "Your fighting is getting sloppy, Nightwing. Is it because I've made you angry? Or is it because you're worried about your precious friends?"

_What the hell are they thinking? Why would they cut the chains without anything to hold the force fields when they fall? Are they stupid or something? _

"Guys! What the fuck-" He was cut off as Slade's hand closed around his throat.

"I thought I told you to pay attention."

On the other side of the hideout, Raven forced Lust back as quickly as she could, but it was already too late. The chains broke apart and the force fields began to fall towards the pot of acid. Stretching out with her soulself, she tried to form shields underneath the force fields to hold them, but they shattered instantly from the force of her brother's magic. Not even waiting for her soul to recover, she did the only thing she could, try to move the giant vat away, but it would not budge either. It had been sealed down by demon magic. In a last, desperate attempt, she called forth her own demon. Eyes glowing red - though there were still only two of them - a bunch of tentacles appeared from underneath her cloak and slammed into the fields. She only managed to break apart the closest one, Jinx's, before the other three fell. And then the fields disappeared and the sickening screams of the three Titans rang throughout the room once before everything was silent.

Nightwing's eyes widened with horror from his position on the ground as Slade chuckled above him. The villain released his grip on the hero and retreated back into the darkness. "I win again," he said softly before disappearing altogether.

Overcome with rage, Nightwing's eyes burned with vengeance as he advanced on the police officers. "You. Fucking. Idiots. I'm going to kill every one of you!"

"Wait- What did we do-"

Nightwing jammed his staff into the man's throat as he turned on the rest of them. He could see their wide eyes, filled with fear, but he didn't care anymore. They had killed his friends because of their ungodly stupidity, or whatever it was that had possessed them to do it. It didn't matter. They had killed his friends and they would pay with their own lives. Striking out with his staff a few more times, he then dodged aside as a rain of bullets came towards him. Slide tackling a couple of them, Nightwing threw an explosive disc into the midst of the rest and felt a disturbing sensation of satisfaction when it exploded in a rain of blood and other things. And then before anyone could do anything else, a massive black shield rose up and separated the police from Nightwing, who then looked toward Raven with a frenzied look on his face. He leapt down and attacked her instead, but Jinx caught his arm right before he struck and held him back.

"What are you doing?" She said softly. And then she was furious. "What are you doing?! You can't just go off killing a bunch of people, _police officers _no less_, _just 'cause you're angry! What's wrong with you?!"

He looked at her coldly. "They killed my friends. My family. They-"

"Stop it," Raven spoke suddenly as she finally regained control over her demon. _Thankfully I only transformed halfway or else I might have lost it right there. _She shuddered once before continuing. "Stop. It's not their fault. They were being deceived by my brother, Lust. He can manipulate all five senses perfectly and can make normal humans imagine all sorts of things. Just..." Raven closed her eyes to keep herself from looking too horrified. "I..." The words stuck in her throat. And then she was surprised to feel a comforting arm around her shoulder. Jinx looked at her kindly before turning back angrily to Nightwing.

"I don't know what to say to you, Richard. Haven't you heard of anger management before?" She paused and waited for an answer, but there was none. "You're a goddamn hero! You're not like Raven or me! We're both supposed to be evil and you're supposed to be the good guy! You're not the one who should be goin' around killing people!" She looked at his face, but there was nothing except a man who seemed to be made out of stone. He did not move. He did not even twitch.

"Just go," she muttered. "Nobody wants you here anyway."

And surprisingly, he listened to her and left wordlessly, feeling the dark glares from all the police officers on his back as he passed by them.

* * *

A/N: I remember one of my reviewers mentioning wanting to see Raven's darker side, but the plot sort of led me to write about Robin/Nightwing's darker side, at least for these few chapters. (Don't worry, we'll get to Raven in due course). But yeah, exploring the many ways a hero can becoming villainish is one of my favorite things.

Hopefully my portrayal of Nightwing's lack of control over his anger wasn't horrible. I kind of wanted to write a long scene where he struggled with his dark side, but I felt like he was more of the 'sudden anger' type, like suddenly feeling a burst of fury and being unable to control it. (almost like a bomb, ya kno?)

Raven might literally have her own inner demon, but everyone has his/her own personal demon, waiting to be unleashed! So yeah, Nightwing's pretty out of control this chapter.

Anyway... hopefully you enjoyed it, and please feel free to review/critique.


	5. Wings of Empathy

Disclaimer: Still don't own Teen Titans DC Comics blah blahblah

I did steal a couple things from the plot in The Dark Knight, but they're minor details dealing with Batman's past with Nightwing, so please copyright office don't come hunting for me :)

This one's a bit of a shorter chapter, just developing some friendships.

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

_"Emphasized Speech"_

* * *

Nightwing sat down on the couch, hands covering his face. He felt nothing at all. Nothing but a cold numbing shock that blanketed all of his other emotions. But deep down within himself, it was still there. That rage, the thing that threatened to break free and cause him to lose control again. He laughed maniacally. Now he finally understood what Raven had been going through for all those years. He understood why she did what she did, why she acted the way she did, why she had been so aloof and dispassionate. Her demon, which was definitely much more threatening than his, he understood very well, now, what that truly meant.

He called himself a vigilante, protector of justice, but he had killed those he had sworn to protect in a fit of unchecked rage. "Damn it all!" He screamed, standing up, breathing rapidly. They had killed his friends, the only family he had left. Didn't he have the right to be angry? It didn't matter who they were. Even if they were the law enforcement for ordinary people, they had killed the only people he cared about. The only people who really cared about him. _An eye for an eye. Isn't that only fair? _

_You're so undisciplined, _Bruce had told him once. It had been one of their biggest arguments. When he had just become Robin, he had had a nasty streak of violently apprehending criminals, even to the point where he had killed a couple of them. In his defense, they were serial killers and he had caught them in the act of rape and murder, but Batman had not taken it very well. _Control your anger,_ he had said, but Nightwing remembered his answer to that. _What good is letting all of these criminals go if they're just going to come back and hurt more people? We should take care of them here and now! They had their chance to do things the right way and they blew it! There's no reason to show them mercy anymore! _And then Bruce had just looked at him coldly and slapped him across the face. _You will do things my way, Richard. End of story. _

And then he remembered the time that he had gone and gotten himself caught by the Joker, who tortured him in all sorts of unimaginable and unspeakable ways, all the while forcing Batman to listen to his screams over Robin's communicator. When Bruce had finally arrived, Nightwing thought that he was going to kill the Joker. The psychopath certainly seemed to want 'ol' bats' to do it, but at the last minute, Bruce had refrained from throwing the man off of a roof top and instead he had just tied him up and left wordlessly.

And then there was also the time where the Joker had shot Barbara and left her paralyzed. The daughter of his best, and possibly only, friend, Batman had not taken the deed lightly. Robin himself had found a good friend in her as well, one that he had felt comfortable enough to share his past with, even allowing her to comfort him on the anniversary of his parent's deaths. And then the Joker had left her... he hadn't even killed her, and that was the worst part. He had left her maimed, a cripple for life, unable to pursue the dream that now lay beyond her grasp. When they caught up to the maniac a day later, they had both pummeled him nearly to death. But again, at the last minute, Batman pulled off and restrained Robin from throwing another punch. _Enough, _he had said. _That's enough. _

And again, when the Joker had kidnapped Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes and threatened to blow them both up, forcing Bruce to choose between the two. Harvey, Gotham's best hope in its war on crime and possibly destroying the mob rule that had been present for most of its history, or Rachel, the greatest love of his life, his only love (although his relationship with Selena Kyle had been sketchy, but she had disappeared so nobody knew exactly what he had going on with her), and the only friend who still remained from his childhood days. And then the Joker had blown her up and left Harvey scarred and a two faced murderer. Bruce had stopped Harvey, sacrificing his own reputation in the process - at least for a couple years until the truth surfaced - but when he finally came face to face with the Joker again, it was the most brutal beating in the history of beatings. And he had dangled the Joker off of the top of a building while Robin watched from the background. _Third time's the charm, Joker, _Batman had said and Robin swore that he thought that Bruce was really going to drop him. And he did, but at the last minute he shot down a batarang with a string attached to it and hauled the Joker back up, leaving him dangling upside down. And that time, the city made sure they locked him up permanently. _  
_

Only now did Nightwing understand what kind of discipline that took. He still hated to admit it, but Bruce had some otherworldly power in that regard, standing unwavering by his morals, his form of justice, never letting his emotions take control of his actions. Ever. Sure, his methods were brutal, but he lived by his one rule and as far as anyone knew, he had never broken it. It was that supernatural discipline that Robin, and Nightwing, lacked, and now he supposed that he understood why Bruce had been so angry with him for not understanding how necessary controlling one's emotions was. It was one thing to vent, it was another to lose oneself in what could only be described as madness. Nightwing had not heeded that lesson, and now he had fucked up hard.

He looked up, sensing someone behind him.

"Raven?" He paused. "Why do you look so sad?"

"I-" she was about to deny the fact that she looked positively depressed, he knew that, but then she caught herself. "I can read your thoughts, you know."

Nightwing cursed himself silently. He had forgotten about that. He tried to change the subject. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "Jinx needed a place to stay so I dropped her off here after we finished..." she looked away uncomfortably, "dealing with the police."

Nightwing groaned. "And what did they say about me?"

Raven fidgeted with her hair, as she always seemed to do when she felt nervous or uncomfortable. "Well, there's some people who are saying that you're unforgivable, and there's others saying that you didn't actually do anything wrong. I don't know, Nightwing. No matter what, this has hurt your reputation and it's making people look at you more like a deranged madman than hero. You've got to be more careful."

Nightwing clenched his fists. "Now I finally understand what you had to go through for all those years. Fighting to keep your demon down, fighting to protect people who only looked at you like you were some monster, even though they didn't even know what you were... Always a fight for control and a fight for justice for people who don't even appreciate it. And then someone comes in and screws up your life, and it's just too much."

"I can't really blame you. I lost it back then, just like how you lost it back in Slade's hideout..." Raven's voice was very soft and soothing. "It happens to the best of us."

"Not to Batman."

They made eye contact and had the same thought. That wasn't really a fair comparison. Batman wasn't just 'the best of them.' When it came to things like self control, he was in a class of his own. Raven sighed.

"Can I stay here? I don't have anywhere else to go and-"

"Go ahead. We haven't touched your room since you left."

Raven murmured her thanks and disappeared into darkness.

* * *

"Raven?"

The violet haired girl looked up in surprise. She didn't imagine that anyone else would be up this late at night, much less outside in a storm. Her lilac eyes locked onto Jinx's slight figure making its way down the rocky shore to where she was sitting, staring at out the sea. She didn't really feel the urge to respond.

"Um... I just wanted to... thank you for saving my life... and... um..." Jinx's voice faltered.

Raven gazed at her with that deadpan expression, betraying nothing of what she felt inside. Jinx mustered up her courage and spoke again. "Why're you sitting outside at 3 am in this ungodly storm? You're gonna die of hypothermia or something."

Raven looked up into the sky. The rain poured down in violent torrents of water but she hadn't noticed until now. She also hadn't noticed just how soaked she was or how dark the sky seemed even though there was supposed to be a waxing Gibbous tonight. As for how late it was at night... well she was practically nocturnal anyway, so that was not really something that bothered her. And then she felt the rain falling on her head stop and she looked to her side. Jinx was holding an umbrella, smiling at her. But it wasn't really a very happy smile at all. She seemed a bit... sad. Or maybe irritated. The smile was just for show.

Raven almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand tugging at her hood and she batted it away, glaring at the pink haired girl sitting next to her. Jinx frowned. "Why're you always hiding from everyone underneath that nasty hood? C'mon, I want to see your face."

Jinx plucked at her hood again and this time, the other girl obliged. Raven closed her eyes and turned away. _It's weird... _Jinx thought to her herself. _Normally she'd be screaming bloody murder by now and telling me to get out or somethin' but she's oddly meek today. Maybe I can have some fun with her. __Forget about my other troubles for some time, at least._

She put a hand on Raven's shoulder, and when the girl didn't bat it away, Jinx pulled gently, turning Raven back to face her. Violet eyes met slitted pink ones. "Why are you so depressed?"

The question caught Raven by surprise, but she kept her face completely smooth and impassive. She couldn't risk showing anything at all. The roiling emotions inside of her body were threatening to break lose any moment... even the slightest crack in her mental barriers and...

She yelped as Jinx's hand traced the lines of her collarbones underneath her leotard. Rage threatened to break loose within her at the _insolent young brat! How dare she touch me! Nobody touches me! I'll kill her! Die- _

But Mirth held Rage in check. Something about Jinx's touch was amusing. Almost pleasing.

"I've always been bad luck," she murmured softly. "But I guess that's not the case today."

_Are you trying to seduce me or something? _Lust got excited at that thought, but held in check by Timid, who was afraid of everything, afraid of being touched, for fear that someone would hurt her, afraid of being looked at for fear that someone might discover her true nature, afraid of any interactions at all, for fear that she would be loved and then when she messed up that relationship, as she always did, shunned.

Jinx broke away and she noticed that she finally was holding Raven's gaze. A small smirk touched her lips. "You gonna just stare at me all day or are you gonna say something?"

The violet haired girl did not respond. She fought down her own roiling emotions and searched for some distraction, wanting desperately to rid herself of the dangerous tempest of feeling within her heart. Pity for Nightwing. A deep, boundless sadness at what had occurred between him and Batman, awe at just how strong the human mind could be. Pain, suffering, everyone suffered, she knew that, but few suffered as much as Batman had. Or Nightwing had. Or even she had, for that matter. But she had grown accustomed to despair. She almost relished the feeling of burning agony in her heart. And then there was fury, violent rage. She, too, wanted to kill everyone who had made her life miserable. She wanted to kill her brothers and her father. She wanted to kill Nightwing and the Titans, as much as she tried to suppress that feeling. But they had made her feel somewhat welcome. They were a family, a _real _family of sorts to her, and then they had cast her out like some plaything that they were tired of. But most of all, she just wanted to kill herself. Bliss in eternal sleep. She was mad at herself for her own lack of self control and for being a miserable failure. A failure of a demon and a failure of a human being. _  
_

And then she became aware of a pair of hands on her shoulders, massaging her upper back, travelling lower to her kidneys, lower yet, just above her tailbone, and as if teasing here, a light touch on her tailbone before moving back up to run through her hair. Raven blushed. She could practically feel the redness spread across her cheeks. She was just lucky that it was hidden by the darkness. The hands worked out all the little tangles in her hair and then traced the outline of Raven's face, her brow ridges, her cheek bones, her unsmiling mouth...

"I know you never liked talking, but this is a bit much, even for you." Jinx frowned again, and Raven could suddenly feel the other girl's emotions through her own boiling ones. Jinx wore a pretty good mask as well. Though she was genuinely a happy, well happier than Raven or Nightwing, person who knew the joys of life, there was also something hurting within her. Everyone hero had a demon within. It just happened to be that some dealt with that demon better than others, and some of those demons were more powerful than others. Raven experienced a familiar burning sensation in the heart, but it was not her own, and suddenly she realized that Jinx was hurting just as much as she was.

"You stupid asshole..." Raven murmured.

Jinx's eyes bugged out in surprise. "You talked."

Raven bit her lip. "Whoops." She earned a giggle in response.

"You're pretty funny, you know that?"

"Why are you so interested in me?"

Jinx batted an eye at her. "I could say the same to you."

Raven blinked a couple times. "... what?"

"I mean usually when people try to talk to you you just ignore them or tell them to go away or shoot 'em dirty looks. But you're talking to me and you're even letting me _touch _you. What's up with that?"

"I... erm... nothing. Don't touch me."

"Do you _really _mean that?" Jinx smirked and wrapped an arm around Raven's shoulders. The girl made a move to shake her off, but Jinx persisted and found that Raven really was being oddly compliant. Raven rolled her eyes and fell into sullen silence again. Her companion crossed her arms and glared at her.

"They were right when they called you the queen of ice. You don't respond to like... anything." She paused, hoping Raven would reply, but she got nothing. But she looked a little more closely and saw the ghost of a smile on Raven's face, one that reached up and touched her eyes, bringing them to life, lavender colored irises lit up, dancing in the dim light around them. It was gone as quickly as soon as she saw it, but she knew that it had been there. Raven, for whatever the reason, was enjoying her company. Jinx smiled herself and was content with merely sitting there in silence. When dawn finally broke four hours later, she had the soft breathing of a sleeping Raven tickling her neck.

* * *

"Why?" Raven's voice was so soft that Jinx thought she was still sleeping... indeed, when she moved Raven's head down from her shoulder to rest on her lap, the girl's eyes still remained closed and her breathing was still deep and even. She was in some sort of trance, Jinx supposed. She lazily played with a lock of violet hair when Raven spoke again.

"Why are you hiding it from me?" Jinx froze at that statement. "Why do you not acknowledge your pain? Why do you shove it down, holding it to fester in your heart? Why do you let it tear your soul apart?"

"W-What are you talking about?"

Raven sighed lightly and her breathing became slightly more agitated, as if she were struggling with something in her sleep. And then she frowned, brows knitted together, trembling very slightly. "Raven?"

"Puny mortal ant," and her voice had a harsher quality about it even though it still remained quiet, no more than a breath in the wind. "You cannot control me. Release me from this prison and I shall grant you power!" Jinx had a feeling that it wasn't Raven speaking anymore.

"No," she murmured, back to her normal voice.

"You cannot resist me forever. You know it in your heart. You are a demon, as evil as they come."

"No," she whispered again, face trembling.

"Raven? Are you okay?" Jinx was really getting worried now. There was something dark within the girl, something very, very evil. And she was doing all that she could to fight it off. The dark sorceress began thrashing about and all around them, the ground began to crack, water rising up from the ocean in large waves. She was slowly losing control, slipping away into that terrifying darkness.

"No!" She screamed out loud and Jinx decided that enough was enough. She seized Raven's shoulders and shook her until she saw the faint glimmer of a violet iris beneath her eyelids. The pink haired girl backed away, slightly unnerved.

"Raven?" No response. "Raven, you okay?"

And finally she stirred, sitting up, rubbing her temples.

"You had me worried there for a sec. You have a nightmare or somethin'?"

Jinx was met with Raven's dark, pained gaze. "I can't be near you." She made a move to leave, but Jinx grabbed onto her wrist. _  
_

_"Don't touch me!" _Her sudden hiss caught Jinx by surprise and the pink girl withdrew her hand sharply, as if burned. Normally at this point, Raven would have melted into shadow and disappeared, but to Jinx's amazement, she actually stayed, standing back turned to her, trembling. And then she turned around, stoic face betraying no emotion, but the slight redness in her eyes giving away the fact that she wanted to cry. So perhaps she wasn't just a cold hearted bitch after all. There was more to Raven than met the eye. And then Raven shocked her even more by speaking again.

"Sorry," she said very gently, feeling rather ashamed. "I..." Most people didn't know about Raven's demon, the exceptions being some of the higher ups in the Justice League and the original Titans. And Slade, of course. But she hadn't told anyone else, and she assumed that none of the Titans had either, so Jinx didn't know about her struggles with her inner demon and her father.

"How do I put this... I have... problems with my emotions. If I lose control of them, bad things happen, _really _bad things. And because I'm also an empath, I'm also very susceptible to other peoples' emotions, so that's why I usually try to be alone. If I don't suppress my empathy, well, it wouldn't be a pretty sight."

Jinx tilted her head. "I guess that makes sense. But then why'd you stay with me so long?"

"I... I don't know. I... I was fine for the most part, but then I guess I lost control of my empathic ability and..." Her voice trailed off.

"And?" The pink girl looked confused.

"Well I sensed all of your emotions all at once and I... somethinginsidemegotlooseandIlostcontrolofit," she blurted out all at once. She supposed it was because Jinx's emotions were so similar to her's that her demon had gotten out of control.

The other girl took a moment to process the information before looking even more puzzled. "And what emotions would those be?"

Raven blinked a couple times. "Well... you're afraid. And you've been hurt. You're scared of being shunned, and you're scared that you're not actually a hero at all, that you're still evil inside."

"Um... wow."

"I'm an empath. It's not like you can hide anything from me."

And then Jinx's cheery exterior melted. She looked at the ground gloomily. "Well, you're right. My powers, you've fought against me before, so you know how they work."

"Yeah, they manipulate probability, vastly increasing the chances for something to explode or break. You might compare it to a t distribution with low degrees of freedom, with the tail probabilities much higher than they should be."

"Yeah, whatever you said. Anyway... That's all I'm good for. Bad luck. No matter how I use my hexes, all I can do is make bad things happen. All I can do is destroy stuff, even if I don't want to." She paused. "My magic isn't that much different from yours, you know? I mean, I can't do all that telekinesis teleportation tentacle shield stuff, but if I lost control of my powers, they would destroy everything around me. Just like yours. I gotta keep them under a tight leash, you know? I guess the only difference between us is yours are based on emotion and mine are... well, just there."

"But it's not like you hurt anyone..."

_"I killed people on accident because I lost control, Raven!" _Jinx looked like she was about to cry. "I mean, I've been part of the HIVE before and I've done plenty of bad things, but I never wanted to kill people! But I couldn't control the strength of my hexes enough 'cause I was just so mad and... ugh," she groaned. "So many times, someone tries to fight me and gets me frustrated, and I just want to rough 'em up a little bit but I lose control and end up killing them or worse, giving them permanent injuries."

"Sure know what that feels like," Raven muttered. "But the only thing we can do is be strong and try to control our powers so that it doesn't happen again. And of course, we try to help people with our 'evil' powers. We still try to be good."

Jinx sat down again and her violet haired friend did the same. The pink haired girl buried her face in her hands. "Normally at this point, I would say you wouldn't understand. I mean, most people can't, right? They don't have to control their strength. They don't have to deal with the fact that their powers are only good for bad things. But I suppose you know what it feels like, right? You're just like me."

Raven nodded. "Although saying I'm just like you is a bit of a stretch."

Jinx managed a weak smile. "Yeah, you're right. I'm not miss doom-and-gloom most of the time." She received an angry glare. Jinx could not help but smile.

"Thanks for listening to my ranting, Rae."

"My name is Raven, not Rae."

"Thanks Raerae." She giggled as Raven muttered something under her breath and stormed off.

* * *

A/N: So here are the beginnings of a couple friendships and Raven reacquainting herself with the Titans, although we'll see just how long these relationships last.

Thanks for reading and please don't forget to review if you have any comments!


	6. Divergence II

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, DC Comics or related content.

I have decided to make this story a Rae/Jinx pairing, and it will probably become clear why after you read the chapter. Sorry to disappoint all the Rae/Nightwing fans, but because there was decent amount of support for that pairing, I've decided to write another story that will be a Rae/Nightwing (at least once I have more time I'll get started on it). So don't hate me :). Thanks for all the support and suggestions everyone!

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

**_Emphasized thoughts (ex: ones that are particularly angry or incensing)_**

* * *

Raven stormed off into the city in the rising sun, clutching her chest, reeling over from all the roiling emotions inside her body. She flew into a dark alleyway, hiding from the onslaught of the growing light.

_Damn it, Jinx! _She let out a string of curses and pounded her fist on the wall. _As if my demon wasn't hard enough to control already, but you just **had **to feed fuel to the fire, didn't you? God. There's a good reason I don't let people touch me... stupid demon's lust is sensitive to these things, especially the way you were touching me. _

Her demon laughed softly. _Admit it. You liked her touches. You found them... sensuous. You can't hide from the truth, sweet Raven. You wanted her to touch you more. You wanted her to **touch you so badly... didn't you?**_

_**Get out of my head!**_Raven's came in rapid gasps and she knelt over on the ground. _Get out before I kill you!_

_You? Kill me? _Her demon's tone was silky, dangerous. _I am you, Raven. I am the true essence of your soul. You destroy me and you'll be nothing more than a hollow shell. Remember, you're not a human. You don't belong with them. _

_I won't give in to evil. I'm not a demon._

_And what makes you think we demons are evil? _

_You destroy everything in sight! All you care about is manipulating other people, annihilating, conquering, and fucking sex. You're just a being of rage, lust, pride-_

_And humans aren't? The greed and manipulation done by your human politicians and businessmen to gain power over others is exactly what you have described to me. Aren't they just as guilty as we are of destroying others for their own gain? And if you're going to argue based on emotion, then you just proved yourself a demon! Weren't you mad when Jinx touched you? Admit it, you were furious, but you liked it at the same time. You wanted more. **You lusted for her, didn't you?**_

_I..._ Raven shook her head back and forth, moaning. She knew what her demon had said was true, but...

_And we demon are not as chaotic as you might think, dear child. Father may conquer worlds but he brings order to them by establishing a hierarchy and strict rules. Your human world is merely an anarchy where chaos passes from one ruler to the next in the blink of an eye; one moment, your precious humanity is kind and peaceful, and the next moment they are at each others' throats, taking every advantage they can get over others for their own gain. Your stupid government's rules are easily overturned and lost, and the majority of them do not even benefit the people they are supposed to help! And yet you still hold some unshakable faith in this failure of a system, when father's order at least brings stability to warring worlds. Even if it is by force._

_I... well, yes, but..._

_But what? If this is true, then why do you hate demons so?_

**_Because... _**_because... humans as a whole may be just as bad as demons, but there is one key difference. Something I have that you don't._

_Oh? And that would be?_

_Some people have the ability to overcome those flaws that you aforementioned. **Some **of us..._ She thought about Batman, the old Robin - not so much Nightwing - the Justice League for the most part... _some of us are willing to sacrifice everything to help others for nothing in return. Some of us live by virtue alone. Can the same be said for your **demons? **_She thought the last word so spitefully that it took even her inner devil by surprise. And then it gave her a low chuckle.

_I'm shocked. I didn't know that you could be so hateful, Raven. Even you, the creepy, aloof, hot tempered Raven, even you I thought would not be this hateful... and prejudiced. I thought you of all people would know better than that._

Raven blinked a couple times. She really had to learn to control her temper. Stupid demon was using it against her. But she did have to admit that the demon had a point. Far from being a saint, like the members of the Justice League, she had fallen to a level even below that of Nightwing. She wasn't quite a mass murderer, but she certainly wasn't blameless either. She _had _killed because of her own lack of control. She had ruined good peoples' lives, and most of all, she wasn't a symbol of justice and lawfullness at all. She was the symbol of something demonic, rage, anger, the supposed hero that was actually just a danger to society. She knew how people viewed her. With suspicion and fear. For god's sake, her own friends - once friends - thought of her that way. She had only been tolerated before because she had been helping the Titans. But she had seen how the media had treated after she had left the Titans. Nobody, _nobody, _defended her. Not that it mattered. She had always been left to fend for herself, right from the moment she had been born, then in Azarath, where her own mother had abandoned her... although she still loved her mother very much for some reason... and then on Earth, where her own friends wouldn't defend her from the media. Not that she could blame them. She had almost killed them. Without being aware of it, Raven suddenly found herself crying. _  
_

"Who's there?" A voice sounded from behind her but locked in battle with her demon, Raven could not muster the strength to answer.

The voice called out again, this time more angrily. "You're that Raven girl, aren't you?" As the presence behind her drew closer, she could sense that he was pointing a gun at her back.

_So what of your **humanity **now? Look at them. A police officer, supposed to protect the citizens of his city, instead pointing a gun at what seems to be a helpless girl sprawled on the ground. All because of something he heard indirectly about her. _

_Shut up._

The man knew who she was. He had seen pictures of the creepy girl and thought she was some sort of demon until Nightwing had kindly informed him that she was once a Titan. Once. But now she was dangerous, a threat to society. At least, that's what everyone said. "Hey! Say something," he said a bit louder, wondering if she simply hadn't heard him. Still no answer. "Raven, right? Look, it's awfully suspicious for someone like you to randomly be out here so early in the morning with nobody around watching you. I know there is no proof that you've done anything, but I need to ask you to stand and put your hands up. We'll take you to the police station until we can get a hold of Nightwing or one of the other Titans and see what they say to do with you."

_So pretentious, aren't they? No proof that you've been doing anything wrong. But still suspicious. You're not quite a villain in their eyes, but like the Batman once was in Gotham, they'll hold your past actions against you. You're being hunted for who you are and what you once did, even if you're doing nothing wrong right now._

_Shut up! _There was a low growl in her throat.

The police officer heard it and this time took a more stern tone when he spoke. "Enough is enough. Any more of this nonsense and I'll have to assume you're threatening me and resisting escort. That's enough to earn you some pretty hefty jail time, young lady." He pointed the gun at her tried once more when she didn't answer. "This is your last warning. Get up!"

_So what. You growl at him a little - which by the way, is **such** a **demon **thing to do - and then he's all ready to shoot you and stuff. Isn't humanity wonderful?_

**_Shut up!_ **

Underneath her hood, four red eyes opened and she rose up, holding her head in her hands. _Damn it! I can't lose control here! _She fought against the demon trying to take over her body, writhing this way and that. But when her powers spiraled out of control and began slashing at the random debris around her, the police officer lost his nerve and began shooting at her.

She deflected the bullets just in time with a shield and... _shit. Big mistake. _The bullets ricocheted off and flew right back at the man, killing him instantly. Raven swore under her breath as she forced her demon down, looking with wide eyes at the spreading pool of blood underneath the man's body. She facepalmed. _Again. I fucking lost control again. Now what am I supposed to do? If anyone finds out..._

_Why do you care about what they think? _Her demon smirked at her. _You could kill everyone in the city if you wanted to. Just let me loose and-_

**_I'll fucking kill you first! Go away! Get out of my head!_ **She forced Rage/Demon whatever it way back into the dark recesses of her mind and held her head in her hands.

"Wonderful..." she mumbled, absentmindedly twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers. "I'm such an idiot..."

And then Raven felt a familiar presence approach from above her, the person that she probably dreaded the most at this point in time. She thought about running away for a moment, but he closed in too quickly and caught her right as she was about to teleport out, pulling her roughly back and shoving her to the ground behind him.

Nightwing stared at the dead body of the officer at his feet and touched the blood just to be sure. It was still warm.

"Raven," he said, and she didn't need to be an empath to know how furious he was. The only thing that kept him from attacking her was how much it looked like she wanted to cry. Raven put her hood up and turned away from him.

"Care to tell me what happened?" He tried to control his anger, for the sake of their past friendship and because she had helped him earlier.

"Sorry..." Nightwing was surprised at how weak Raven's voice sounded when she finally replied. And the fact that the first thing she said was an apology. Raven bit her lip and faced him, head bent down. "He was suspicious of me so he tried to bring me to the police station, but I couldn't reply to any of his questions because I was fighting with... well you know what."

Nightwing nodded. "And then you lost control."

"Well, not quite. I... may have had four eyes for a moment... but I never attacked him. He was the one who shot at me and I wasn't thinking and I just deflected them, and..."

Nightwing's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the body, and indeed, it seemed that the man had died of bullet wounds, not something that Raven would have done to him. He paused for a moment, breathing in and out deeply, before turning back to look at the dark cloaked girl.

"Fine. Maybe this time it wasn't completely your fault. But remember this, and remember it well, Raven. That's yet another life you've cost by losing control of that thing inside you. You're a danger and a liability. And while I would say that it's not your fault and that it's your demon doing this, I won't. You're half demon. It's still part of you. You're still the one doing these things. Keep your emotions and your devil in check or we _will _ have problems. Got it?"

"You're one to talk, Dickhead Grayson," her demon growled from her mouth before she could stop it. Raven instantly covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide with shock.

Nightwing leapt forward at her and his hand closed around her neck. He pushed her back into the wall, hard, and pinned her there, almost choking the life out of her. His face was a mask of fury, but then he realized that it wasn't actually Raven who had said that. "I warned you. Keep that thing under control. And don't _ever _backtalk me."

He let her drop to the ground and she lay there, gasping for breath and massaging her bruised neck. The dark haired Titan stared at her coldly. "I still have to report this to the police. I can't vouch for you because I'm... not exactly in good standing with them at the moment, but considering the officer attacked you first, you'll probably just be let off with a warning, even if they think you're a monster. Now get out of my sight."

Raven disappeared, her demon's maniacal laughter echoing throughout her mind.

* * *

Jinx stared at the disheveled figure of a violet haired girl sleeping on the black couch in the Titan Tower's common room. Her mouth slightly agape, her brow was furrowed and eyes squeezed shut tightly as if she were in great pain. Looking closer, the faded tear streaks down her face became apparent and shifting her cloak slightly off of her shoulders, the dark bruises around her neck appeared as well. But what was most shocking of all was that Raven hadn't woken up when Jinx had gotten close to her or even touched her. Normally that girl woke up if anyone came near her unexpectedly. Something was very wrong.

But Raven obviously needed rest, and so Jinx pulled the girl's cloak over her body like a blanket and curled up beside her, waiting for her to wake up. And indeed, after maybe two hours had passed, a violet eye slowly opened, though her irises were still slightly glazed over as if she were not quite fully awake yet. Or maybe just depressed.

"Jinx?" She murmured, feeling the warmth of another body pressed against her own. Surprisingly, she did not have to fight down Lust, which usually would've been out of control if she was in such close proximity to another... rather attractive... person. _Did I really just think that? That wasn't Lust was it? _

Her demon grumbled from within her mind. _I told you, not everything's my fault. Your human side feels these things too. _

_But I'm not a lesbian- _

She got the impression that her demonic side was grinning wickedly. _I'm sure you know this, but there are very few female demons in Hell. The few that can be found are usually abused as tools for making babies. That's why I prefer females, at least. I don't know about you though. Maybe you're just screwed up._

_Or maybe you're just screwing with my mind. There's no way I should be attracted to someone of my same gender. My mother was-_

_Raped by an interdimensional **male **demon. _

_I supposed you have a point... _

"Hello? Earth to Raven? Wake up, babe," Raven blinked a couple times, her conversation with her demonic side ended by the hand waving in front of her face. "Why do you zone out so much, anyway?" Jinx's hand was soon replaced by her curious face.

Raven sat up. _Can't believe I just had an almost normal conversation with my demon. Well... not exactly a normal conversation but... _"Why were you sleeping next to me?" She evaded Jinx's question.

The pink haired girl shrugged. "Why not? It was comfortable there and you looked like you needed some company."

"Um, what?"

Jinx looked at her meaningfully. "Don't try to play dumb, Rae. Something happened that upset you. It was written all over your face."

Raven frowned. "I wasn't aware that I could be read so easily. And why are you so interested in me anyway?"_  
_

The pink Titan giggled a little. "I can read you like an open book, babe." _Well, sometimes, at least. _"And besides, why wouldn't I be interested in you?"

"Because I'm..."

"Just like me? Struggling with her evil side? Trying to be good but can't shake the feeling that you're actually a demon or something?"

_If only you knew how true that was. _"Look, Jinx, I know we're in the same situation but-"

"But what? You telling me you don't want anyone to help you at all? Nightwing did mention that you had problems with your emotions. Maybe... I could help? I know how it feels when you lose control of your feelings. And how... it doesn't do great things for other people. Trust me, I know that feeling."

Raven bit her lip. "I don't doubt that," she whispered. But she was just so scared of getting close to other people. Maybe she _didn't _want any help at all. Maybe she was afraid that getting close to someone would only loosen the already very loose bindings she had on her demon. Or maybe she was just afraid of being rejected after Jinx found out what she really was. "I mean," she thought out loud without even noticing. "What's she gonna think when she finds out about what I did this morning..? I'm a monster, aren't I?"

"I heard that," she murmured back softly.

Raven immediately blushed and put her hood up. "I-"

"It's fine," Jinx plucked at her friend's hood but Raven was hellbent on hiding herself, it seemed. Jinx hmphed. "Raven, I already knew about it. Nightwing told me everything after it happened and warned me to be careful around you."

"You... knew? And you're still willing to talk to me?"

Jinx smiled, a genuine, empathetic smile that spoke of kindness and a bit of pity. "Nightwing's gotten a bit more... hotheaded now adays. Only reason he'd almost choke you to death. The other Titans probably wouldn't hold it against you either. No matter what you think, Rae, you're not a demon."

_Stop saying that, Jinx. You're only exciting it more. _Her face contorted and her eyes closed. She fought it down with a surge of willpower and a moment later she was calmed again. "Let's stop talking about me," the violet haired girl mumbled. "Having problems with me-"

"I get it," Jinx replied. "I can leave you alone if you want or..."

"No, it's okay." Wait. What was she saying? She actually was letting Jinx stay near her? With her demon clawing at the confines of her mind, dangerously close to breaking free again? And she hated being near _anyone _to begin with. _What's going on with me... _

"Rae?" Jinx looked into her face, concerned.

"It's nothing," she took a deep breath. "Just a bit scared of Nightwing right now." Raven sort of told the truth. She _was _scared of him, but it wasn't why she was zoning out.

"Don't worry about it. He's got anger management issues probably 'cause he's trying to tackle something he can't handle by himself," the pink haired girl tried to comfort her friend.

_I guess even he can't do everything by himself, even if he was Batman's apprentice. _"So why hasn't he called for help from the Titans East or Kid Flash? And weren't you two like inseparable a couple years back? At least I thought you were when I was still here."

Jinx sighed. "Wally and I... simply didn't work out. I've been struggling with my powers for years and since crime's been getting worse in Jump, it's put more stress on us. I... well I told you already, I just get so mad when I see how horrible some people are and I kinda lose myself, and I end up..." Her voice trailed off and it was silent for a moment. "Well, Wally said I was too out of control or something like that and he didn't want to be with a murderer and a witch. So he left to go back to live with Flash."

Raven's eyes widened. "I didn't know that... I always thought he was so understanding. And forgiving."

"Ugh, trust me, he's got a very ugly side when it comes to the whole 'we're vigilantes, we can't kill people' thing. Almost like Robin once was."

Raven nodded. She understood how that thought process worked very well. But it just seemed a little unfair, especially since neither she nor Jinx had purposely killed those people. Besides, with the amount of people those villains had murdered and the amount of terror they had instilled on the still living populace, they deserved to die anyway. At least, that was what most people believed, but Robin, Kid Flash, even most of the Titans weren't just most people. Good or bad, there was a strict no kill policy when it came to other humanoids. And Jinx and Raven had both violated that policy.

"Nightwing's different from the old Robin though," Jinx's voice brought Raven out of her thoughts. "You've seen how he is... the way he tires to do everything by himself. Lot of the others didn't like that and the Titans network kinda fell apart in the time that you were gone. Titans East disbanded a while back, and everyone's just off doing their own thing now. Right now, it's just us, since the others..."

"I failed them," Raven looked at her hands gloomily.

"Raven... it's not your fault."

"I was too weak," she muttered. "All because I couldn't restrain my inner-" She broke off, eyes widening as she realized what she was about to say.

"Your inner what?"

"Erm... uh..."

"Her inner demon," Nightwing's voice sounded from behind them. Raven looked away, feeling an unsettling sensation in her stomach.

"Her inner what?" Jinx looked puzzled.

Nightwing moved from the doorway of the common room and stood behind the couch, looking down into Jinx's puzzled face. Raven was turned, back facing him, hood raised. Nightwing looked at her coldly before turning back to Jinx. "She didn't tell you, I supposed. It's not surprising. It was a couple years before we found out."

"Found out what?"

"I told you to stay away from her for a reason. She's half demon, Jinx."

The pink haired girl's eyes widened considerably. "Raven's... a demon?"

"She normally keeps her human form by controlling her demon side within her mind. But she struggles with it all the time, and every time she fails to restrain her emotions, her demon side emerges. And I'm sure you've heard stories about how dangerous demons are."

"But... Rae... didn't tell me... But she seems so... normal?" Jinx was suddenly uncertain about her feelings toward her friend.

Raven didn't reply at all, but if one listened carefully, soft sobs could be underneath the sound of Nightwing's voice.

"That's what we thought too. Until she almost killed us. Raven's dangerous, Jinx."

"But..." The confused Titan shook her head. "What kind of demon would get together with a human?"

"A powerful interdimensional one that wants a portal to take over the world. He used her to come to Earth and nearly destroyed the planet, but we defeated him."

"Who?"

"Trigon," Nightwing muttered softly. His gaze turned back to Raven, who had not moved throughout the entire conversation. She felt his gaze on her back and she suddenly stood up, a thin shadow in the light around her.

Jinx stood as well and looked at her strangely. "Why didn't you tell me- Hey!" She started to move forward as Raven slowly disappeared into a black portal, but Nightwing put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her from pursuing the violet haired girl.

And as Raven teleported away, Jinx turned back to Nightwing, a mixture of anger and shock on her face. "Why did you have to be so mean to her?! And why wouldn't she tell me?! Ugh... I don't even know what to feel right now."

The dark Titan shrugged. "Feel however you like. But, trust me, you should stay away from her. You've heard about Trigon too. Hard to imagine that his daughter would be harmless, right?"

Jinx didn't answer. She walked past him and up to her room, locking the door before throwing herself on her bed and falling into fitful slumber.

* * *

Raven sat on the top of a skyscraper, looking at the moonlight. Honestly she was surprised that neither Nightwing nor Jinx had come after her yet, even though it had already been a few hours, but then again she wasn't that surprised after all. Nightwing probably wouldn't be able to find her so easily and wouldn't care to - even though he did think she was a threat to his city - and Jinx... Raven closed her eyes. _Well what did I expect? I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. I'm a **demon. **Why did I ever think she was going to accept me? This isn't something that I can really blame her for. My own weakness... my own false hope... there's no way she'd come after me after learning that I was the daughter of Trigon, would she?__  
_

And then she looked up as she sensed something approach from behind her. Could it be...? No... This presence was too sinister to be either Nightwing or Jinx.

"Slade," she muttered, but didn't move.

"Hello Raven," he greeted her politely. "Lovely night we have here."

"What do you want?"

"Straight to the point, as always." He paced back and forth behind her, but sensed that she did not fear him at all. Curious. He rarely failed to intimidate, even in Nightwing's case. "A better question is why are you out here all alone at this time of night? You know it's... dangerous."

His veiled threat still didn't scare her. "And what makes you think you can touch me, let alone hurt me?"

Slade chuckled. "True. But I didn't say I was the one who you should be afraid of..."

He backed away and suddenly Raven sensed another, much more unsettling presence. She got up immediately and faced Slade and the figure in the dark cloak.

"I'll leave you two alone to catch up. Ah, sibling love..." He jumped down through the hatch on the roof of the skyscraper, leaving her alone with...

"Wrath," she hissed. But then she paused, sensing her brother's pain. Loosening her restraints on her empath ability, Raven was met with the sense of an intense agony that had just begun to fade. "What happened to you?"

Her brother pulled down the hood of his cloak. "Father's... lectures... are not pleasant. But that's not what I'm here for."

Raven tensed immediately. "I suppose I can guess what you want."

"Peace, Pride. We don't have to do this the hard way. I'm sure you've sensed it too, my power has grown since we last fought. And you seem distraught."

The violet haired girl frowned. She _did _sense that he was stronger, and not by just a little bit. He had gained an entirely new power. "I'm not going without a fight."

"Perhaps," Wrath said. "But you are my sister. And like it or not, I know that you are in no condition to fight right now."

"Wanna bet?" Raven bared her teeth at him and her eyes glowed white. A moment later, an enormous black raven - her soulself - appeared in the sky, black lightning crashing about it.

"Your threat doesn't scare me, Pride. Show all the force you want, I know that you won't strike me with it-" he broke off as the raven rushed at him, threatening to pierce him through with its beak. The lightning storming around it gave off a chilling heat that felt like it would melt his flesh off its bones and freeze him into solid ice at the same time, and Wrath had to admit that he was a little scared. But he held his ground. And as he predicted, the raven stopped right before running through his body.

Raven fell to her knees, head bent. "Fine. You got me," she murmured in a defeated tone. "But I will defend myself if you attack me."

Wrath nodded. "I don't doubt that. And even with my newfound power, I would be hard pressed to defeat you. But, I have tricks of my own." He gestured at her and suddenly everything exploded in waves of vermilion agony, her body torn apart with pure pain. But she bore it and faced him, the sweat running down her face the only sign of that his powers were working. And then it faded.

"Impressive, Pride. I even killed some of the lesser demons with that power, but you took it without even screaming."

"And what exactly does pain have to do with wrath anyway. Wasn't father supposed to give you powers related to your sin?"

"He didn't give me this power. I found it within myself after he _disciplined_ me. You see, anger is only the tip of the iceberg. It is many things besides mere fury. Anger comes from hatred. It thrives on strong emotion. It gives one a sense of vitality, but it also can destroy. And most of all, it is pain. The one who is wrathful also feels the agony of his own wrath. Enmity, hatred, they bring pain to others, when you injure the relationships that you work so hard to form. Wrath is pain on oneself and pain on others."

Raven frowned. That was very true. Especially the part about breaking the bonds that she had worked so hard to make. But mere physical pain wasn't going to bring her down. "That's great... but surely you realize that's not enough to defeat me..."

"Oh, it's not. But I was hoping you would come without trying to fight me. I guess that's not the case, though. Very well then..."

A red power surged from his hands and moved toward her, but she sensed that it wasn't something intended to hurt her. The crimson light touched her forehead lightly and entered her mind before reemerging, forming into different images.

"Like Envy's power to manifest fear in reality, I can manifest one's most hated things into reality. Of course, not necessarily at full power, but..."

And a miniature image of Trigon appeared in front of her.

"Not a surprise," the demon murmured, and the image disappeared. It was replaced by an image of Nightwing - Raven gasped audibly at that; it was one of the hatreds that she had wanted to suppress, keep hidden forever, but she couldn't help it. She hated him not because he was what he was, but because he had once been the symbol of pure virtue, justice without evil. The old Robin had a moral code that had surpassed Batman's own. But it was gone now. No. That wasn't quite it either. Raven had never had patience with those heroes who only tried to do things "the right way." It never actually got anything done. In the past, she might have hated him for forsaking the title of paragon of virtue. But she hated him for one reason, and one reason only. She had _loved _him.

It wasn't some ordinary infatuation of a teenage girl. No, when Raven loved, it was a very rare thing - her even liking someone as a friend was rare, for goodness sake - but she had loved him because they had understood each other well. After looking into his mind when he had been plagued by visions of Slade, she had understood the depth of the darkness in his heart but admired his strength in keeping it all to himself and maintaining faith in justice. Losing one's parents, all the brutality of Gotham, she had understood it all. And through that bond, he had also received visions of her own emotions, finally understand just what she had to deal with through all the years. She had thought they were special. But no more._  
_

The image shifted once more and Wrath's eyes widened. "Your most hated person is... yourself?"

It wasn't even an image of her own demon. The red light came together to show a perfect clone of Raven's human form, a dark spectre that merely stood there, blinking at Wrath, who seemed very unsettled. He looked at the fearful expression on his sister's face, looking at her own face as if it were a mirror into her soul.

"Yeah. It is..." she murmured almost imperceptibly.

"Why?" He inquired.

She answered without knowing why. "Many things. Failure. Hurting everyone I once cared about. Being unable to stick to my moral code, my ethics. Unable to hold to my own resolve. Being a horrible human, and a horrible demon both at the same time."

Wrath dispelled the magic and looked at Raven curiously. "But you're supposed to be Pride."

She looked at him with a sardonic mask on her face; the demon was struck my just how haunting that look was. The dark, wearied eyes, her mouth twisted in a smile and a frown at the same time, shadows cascading all about her seemingly smooth skin... There was something alight in her irises, something tormenting, eating away at her being. Wrath closed his eyes.

"Why do you care?" Raven said.

Her brother sat down, facing her. He opened his mouth, but then closed it. He knew he was about to tear her apart with what he was going to say, but it couldn't be helped. He was wrathful, a demon, son of Trigon, but not a liar. He would be truthful with her.

"You're my little sister," he stated simply. "And though it doesn't seem like it, I am your older brother. You are my family, more so than even my other brothers. I... should be protecting you. I should be trying to make you happy."

Raven's eyes widened. _Is he just trying to fool me into coming with him? Is this just some big joke, or a trap? _She extended her empathic powers and was shocked to find that he was being truthful. "What... the hell..."

Wrath's mouth twisted into a tiny smirk. "Yes, yes, I know. I'm a demon. I'm supposed to be the embodiment of rage. But, sister, we demons are not possessed of destruction and bloodlust. You might not realize it, but some of us are more 'human' than your pitiful humans are."

"You... lie..."

"I'm not lying. Think about it. All we are trying to do is help you. What about your 'friends'? All they did was acquaint themselves you to keep an eye on something they saw as a threat, use you for their own gain, and then cast you aside like some toy. You call us cruel, but then your supposed 'saints' of humans do that to you, and you still believe in humanity?"

Raven pounded her fist on the skyscraper and screamed, slowly losing control of herself. What was he saying? Her brother, a demon, _Wrath _of all people, cared about her? What the hell?

His words reached her in a stupor, dreamlike, but even so she knew in her heart that they were true. She had long since lost faith in humankind's ability to actually care about and help each other. People were _only _motivated by self interest. And of course, she had thought that was the same about every single other alien species, having met quite a few of them from her travels. (Blackfire, the Gordanians, Val-yor, just some of the few that came to the forefront of her mind). And now she was finding 'humanity' in demons, who she had always thought were merely bloodthirsty meatheads? What had the world come to?

"You... my brothers... almost killed me..." She spoke through gritted teeth, struggling with her inner demon once again.

Wrath actually looked a bit sorry. "We did. Biggest mistake we've made in a long time. But you should understand how frustrating it is when you see your little sister forsake her family for something that only brings her pain. Strong willed or not, your actions don't make any sense, Pride."

"A wonderful _non sequitur? _Fine... maybe I am irrational. But... you almost killed me."

Wrath slammed his fist on the roof of the skyscraper and accidentally cut the building in half with the force of his blow. Looking down in surprise, he jumped away as the two halves began to fall to the ground. And Raven followed him. They landed in a dark alley, standing, facing each other. The demon breathed out heavily, reigning his anger back in, but curiously, Raven sensed that his anger was directed at himself, not her.

"Yes, what a _wonderful _brother I was to you. I said I should have protected you, but I ended up almost killing you. True. I'm not denying it. I did screw up."

"And you still expect me to come with you-"

"No."

Raven wasn't sure she had heard that correctly. "What?"

Her brother sighed. "Father and the others are really going to be mad this time, but I don't care. I should have protected you, and I didn't. And I should be trying to make you happy, but clearly I'm not. Fine. If coming back to father is really going to make you that unhappy, then stay here. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

The violet haired girl stared at him incredulously. "What?"

Wrath turned away and began to walk away. "One last warning. I said I should be trying to make you happy, but you and I both know that staying with these _humans,_" he spat the word out as if it were some distasteful thing in his mouth, "only cause you to suffer. When you finally realize that, then maybe you'll come back to us."

"I..." She closed her eyes. "Wrath..."

He said nothing and merely disappeared into a red portal.

* * *

"What?!" Trigon's roar boomed throughout his palace.

"I said, we should leave her alone for the time being. She is still young. We must give her some breathing room. Eventually she will come back to us." Wrath stated calmly.

Trigon stared at his son furiously. "It does not matter what she wants! She is merely a tool for us to use to conquer those pitiful mortal worlds! We shall bring the demon rule to the realm of those petty humans, destroy their chaotic anarchy, and establish ourselves as heads of a new order! She is merely a pawn in our game."

"Then what are we, her brothers? Are we merely pawns in your game as well?" Wrath felt irritation swell inside him, but he kept it to himself, knowing that it wouldn't help his argument against Trigon.

"Insolent fool! You are my sons, pure blooded demons of the highest class! She is merely a half breed woman! Her feelings, her freedom, none of that matters! Make sure you get that into your head!"

"What a lousy father..." Wrath muttered darkly.

Trigon's voice dropped in volume significantly but there was an air of deadly precision in his tone. "What did you say to me?"

"Exactly what it sounded like."

"Enough of this, son. Bring her to me. If you wish so much to see your little sister safe and happy, fine. I will turn her myself."

"No. She comes by free will or not at all."

Trigon stomped his foot on the ground, eyes blazing in anger. "If you were not my eldest son..."

"Get one of the others to do it," Wrath replied and left Trigon's throne room.

As the doors closed behind him, he became aware of his brothers gathered in a group off to the side of the hall. Greed mustered up the courage first and tentatively approached him; all of them knew just how bad Wrath's temper could be, especially after arguing with Trigon.

"Brother?"

"What," Wrath spat out.

"Perhaps... you shouldn't antagonize father so much. You know how he feels about the whole thing."

"Indeed," the others began to speak as well. "Even if she is our sister, we cannot let her just run free like that. And she is only a half breed."

"You saw how furiously she fought us. Only father has any chance of turning her."

"She _is _only a pawn in our game, Wrath. Sister or not, she has resisted us for too long. We gave her a chance and she didn't take it."

_"All of you shut up!" _The demons backed away from their older brother, looking at each other nervously. "I know you may not share my... sentiments, but she is still our little sister. We're not here to hurt her. Get that into your heads." And Wrath stormed off, alone, out into the barren landscape of the hell of Trigon's realm.

* * *

She had fucked up royally once again, but this time she didn't even care. After the skyscraper had collapsed and a bunch of demon energy was sensed around the area, the police had come to investigate the scene to find her sitting with her head held in her hands, screaming silently. And of course, knowing who she was, the police had automatically assumed that she had lost control and was responsible, and they had shown an appropriate response - trying to "put her down" as they had said it. Of course, they should have known better to mess with an emotionally unstable Raven. She had retaliated forcefully, and now there were dozens of bodies laying around her, unmoving.

Taking a deep breath, Raven tried to calm herself down. She moved around, checking each officer for any signs of life, and was pleasantly surprised to find that most of them were still living, if only by a thread. She tried to heal the ones that she could but for some reason the energy would not come to her. Her powers - because of her emotional state - were completely out of control.

Slowly, she began to feel more and more overwhelmed by the sight of the injured people around her, even more so by the few dead, whose glossy stares spoke of hatred and horror - directed at her - and yet more so by the blood and smell of burnt flesh. The images swirled around in her mind and suddenly everything came crashing down on her. She had done it once again.

Raven screamed and bashed her head into a nearby wall, feeling as if she had gone insane. She screamed until her throat was completely dry and she was out of breath, and even then she did not stop. Blood streamed down from her forehead where she had hit her head on the wall, intermingling with the tears flowing down her face. And even then she did not stop screaming.

It was only when a dark presence entered the range of her sensing powers that she stopped and turned, frightened, to face Nightwing.

"You monster," he spat out. _"You demon! What have you done!" _

Raven didn't even bother to wipe the tears and blood from her face. She could only look at him, eyes wide and lips trembling.

Nightwing walked toward her, looking down at all the unconscious bodies of the police officers around him. And then the white hot rage surged to the front of his mind and he picked up one of the fallen policeman's guns, pointing it at her. He didn't remember seeing Raven look so scared ever, but now he didn't care.

"Unforgivable," he muttered coldly. "This time you'll pay."

"Stop!" A voice suddenly called out from behind him before he could shoot and a spotlight shone down on the pair from a helicopter hovering above them. They were surrounded by a legion of Jump's police and Jinx stepped out from the shadows behind Nightwing.

"Nightwing," she said softly. "Don't do this."

"I'll do what I please!" He shouted at her and shoved her back before pointing the gun at her instead.

"Drop the gun Nightwing!" The Titan looked around at all the policemen surrounding him and gritted his teeth. "Drop it! You've already been responsible for enough police officer's deaths! Do you want to have the blood of two heroes on your hands too?!"

_"That demon," _he pointed at Raven, unrestrained fury clear on his face, _"is no hero! I don't care what you say! I'll kill her!" _

He wheeled around again and aimed the gun at the dark empath, who seemed to be frozen in place, caught like a deer in headlights.

"Do it and we'll have to arrest you, Nightwing."

"Do it and you really won't be a hero anymore, Richard," Jinx murmured, only loud enough for him to hear.

Nightwing slowly lowered the gun, his face slightly calmer than before. But then he looked at Raven again and saw the demonic light burning in her eyes, the demon that she was so desperately trying to restrain but losing to as well. His anger exploded once more and he raised the gun, pulling the trigger. Raven coughed out a mouthful of blood as the bullet pierced her chest, shattering her sternum. Everything instantly became hazy and she was only slightly aware of the police moving forward, tackling Nightwing to the ground, her own body falling, the numbing pain spreading everywhere, her eyes slowly closing. The last thing she heard was a familiar female's voice crying over her before everything faded into nothingness.

* * *

A/N: I'm pretty cruel, leaving off on a cliffhanger like that, but hey, it's my writing style...

Anyway, a couple notes about this chapter:

I wanted to portray demons not just as the stereotypical bloodthirsty destructive beings but as a species just as complex as humans are. So of course, while there will be some who are obsessed only with destruction and control (like Trigon), there will be others who have conflicted feelings (like Wrath)

Also, I'm rather pleased with the way the Rae/Jinx pairing is turning out, so I'm probably going to go ahead and say this is definitely going to be the main pairing for this story. That being said, it's not like they won't have any relationships with other people; obviously Raven will have an abusive relationship with her father, uncertain ones with her brothers, etc., and Jinx still has ties to the old Titans and even the HIVE. But those will merely be friendships - Rae/Jinx is the romance :p

- SPOILER ALERT -

I should mention that Nightwing and Raven's relationship is not permanently damaged. They'll become friends again... eventually

- END SPOILER ALERT -

Hope you enjoyed and if you have any comments please do not hesitate to leave them in reviews!


	7. Interlude I

Disclaimer: Don't own TT, DC comics, all the usual stuff

A bit of a shorter chapter but it's essential in taking care of a couple necessary plot developments outside of our dear Raven's life and her relationships with Nightwinga and Jinx. Sorry, but I'll have to hold ya guys in suspense about Raven's condition and what's going to happen to Nightwing until next update cause I'm evil :)

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

Slade paced back and forth, slowly feeling irritation creep up upon him. He was not a man used to waiting for anyone, or working as partners with anyone for that matter, and to add insult to injury, that demon was _late! _Nobody was _ever _late when dealing with Slade. Ever.

"Upset about something?" The voice caught him by surprise and he turned around sharply, seeing nothing in the darkness of his hideout. But he recognized that voice.

"Wrath," he replied. "You're late."

It also annoyed him to no end that the demon was able to sneak up on him completely undetected. It was even more annoying that he could remain unseen even when Slade was looking for him; only Nightwing and Raven had managed that feat, but now he had another person to add to his list to be cautious around. Correction. Another demon.

The red eyes opened and looked at him, studying him carefully for a moment. Wrath was somewhat empathic as well, but not to the degree to which his sister was. "Nervous?"

"Perhaps," Slade avoided answering definitively. But of course he was nervous. He was in the presence of a powerful demon who had managed to sneak up on him completely undetected and caught the villain unprepared, unaware. It wasn't a feeling that he relished getting used to. "I understand that you let Raven escape."

"Pride..." Wrath murmured. "I will leave her to her own devices for now. You got what you wanted - that man, Nightwing, his reputation is ruined. Of all the Titans, only the green one remains, and as far as I could tell, he did not pose much of a threat."

"And the old HIVE member, Jinx," Slade reminded him.

Wrath shrugged. "It does not matter if there is one ant or two. They do not pose a threat. This city is yours. You can do whatever you want with it. My brothers and I will keep the Justice League... occupied for now. My father's armies are already drawing their attention away from here. The only conditions that we have are that you allow us to establish a portal to Trigon's realm of Hell so that the lesser demons may pass through, and that you leave my sister alone."

Slade paused. Had he sensed that Wrath's voice had a slight edge to it at that last part? "Feeling a bit protective of Raven? I suppose I understand. She is your younger sister after all."

Wrath's eyes narrowed. "Watch your tongue, mortal. I'm sure you are aware of her power as well. Harnessed properly, it is something that could be an enormous... asset to my father's plans." Actually, that was a lie, but it wasn't like he was going to let a mortal know that he actually cared about her. His father, his brothers, fine, but he didn't relish the idea of being "humanized" by pitiful mortals. And he didn't relish the idea of the mastermind Slade having a weapon to use against him. Hostages were never a good thing.

"Whatever the case," Slade replied, "even if I have done nothing to her, she is still in danger."

"The city hunts her?"

"Well, not exactly," Slade flipped on a computer screen behind him, showing off the image of a certain dark Titan sitting in a jail cell and another image of a girl being pushed into a hospital on an operating table, where paramedics were already beginning their surgical procedures on her.

If Wrath was disturbed, he gave no visible outward sign of it. Slade shrugged and took the silence as an indication that he was to continue.

"It seems that our friend has lost his mind, just as I planned. But even I never thought that he would go so far as to shoot her. I must admit, I was _very _surprised when I saw that. The only thing that puzzles me is that she did nothing to defend herself when it would have been easy to simply deflect the bullet. Did you do something to her when you were... chatting?"

Wrath grumbled a little under his breath. "No. Will she live?"

"How am I supposed to know? Just because I have cameras installed around the city does not mean I know every little detail of these things. But as far as I could see, the bullet pierced her chest. I don't know much about demon anatomy, but it seems that your kind is not invulnerable to that type of damage."

The demon grunted in response. "I will go to see her myself after the humans are done with whatever it is that they do. You... do whatever you want. You will want to see Nightwing, will you not?"

Slade's eyes narrowed in amusement. "Actually, I'm not done playing with him yet. You see..." He gestured to his left and a light turned on, revealing three tanks filled with some sort of liquid. Inside them floated the bodies of Cyborg, Starfire, and Terra, who all seemed to be in some sort of hibernation. "I have one more game left. Our dear Nightwing has one more chance to win."

Wrath stepped into the light to get a better look, and Slade was pleased to see that the demon was genuinely surprised.

"You didn't kill them?"

"Dead, they are useless to me," the villain replied. "The acid was no more than a hoax. Some green food coloring and dissolved carbon dioxide and anything will look like acid."

"Well I'm certain that Nightwing will not be able to beat you at your own game. He has not even won one so far. What will you do with the Titans after you are done with them?"

The masked man was silent for a moment. "Honestly, I hadn't thought that far," he chuckled. "Never thought I'd live to see the day where they were all caught in my trap so completely. I really must thank you for your help in this endeavor."

Wrath grunted a you're welcome before turning back to the computer screen to see his sister disappear into the hospital. His gaze shifted back onto the image of the once hero slumped over in his jail cell, looking like a man who had had too much to drink or maybe too many drugs. And suddenly Wrath's rage boiled and he was tempted to kill Nightwing right that instant.

The killing intent was not missed by Slade, who was rather unnerved by the sudden outburst of anger from the demon - even if he gave no outward sign that his mood had changed. "If you wish to kill him, you might as well make it look like a suicide," Slade murmured facetiously. He knew that the demon wouldn't actually kill Nightwing. Breaking a man's spirit was a much worse punishment than merely killing him. Although he had to wonder why Nightwing had made the demon so angry. Perhaps a personal grudge.

Wrath turned and looked at the villain with a blank stare. "Not today. Perhaps another time. Although I suppose after you're through with him, he will want to nail his own coffin shut." He turned to leave.

"Give your sister my regards when she wakes up," Slade called out. "If she does."

Wrath did not respond, but secretly he was quite worried that Raven actually might not make it.

* * *

Batman slammed his fist down on the wooden table, breaking it cleanly in two before turning back to the image of the green Titan on his computer screen. Beast Boy seemed rather unnerved by the display of rage from the superhero, but he continued speaking, knowing that Batman would not appreciate being not completely informed of the whole situation.

"So... yeah. Richard kinda just shot her, and she's in critical condition right now, at least that's what the doctors say. I got a good look at her in the ambulance."

"And?" Batman growled.

Beast Boy shook his head. "She doesn't look too great. Bullet went straight through her sternum and lodged in an artery, so I was told."

Batman grabbed the remains of the table and hurled them against one wall. How many times had he warned Richard to control himself? How many times had he tried to get it into the young boy's head that he _could not _lose his head while fighting or else he'd do something stupid that he'd later regret? Now look where it had landed him.

"Um... Batman sir?"

"What?" The dark knight grumbled back after a moment, suppressing his own anger. He'd take out his frustration on his old apprentice later.

"Is... everything okay?"

"You should be more worried about your city than about me," Batman replied, still fuming.

"Right, well I'm not exactly the guy who's most suited to working alone. And the only other Titan left in the city is Jinx, and she's kinda out of it right now..." Beast Boy turned the communicator screen to reveal a pink haired girl curled up on a bench outside the emergency room, staring off into empty space, with tears leaking out of her eyes. Every so often, a flash of pink energy would fly through the air and break something, but nobody had the heart to bother the traumatized girl.

"I'm coming to Jump," Batman replied.

"But what about Gotham-"

"It'll only be for a day. Gotham can live without me for that long."

"Right... I guess we'll be expecting you, sir?"

Batman grunted.

"Oh, and one last thing," Beast Boy spoke suddenly but then seemed to retreat, uncertain whether he should say it or not. Batman waited patiently for a moment - well, a moment was patient for him at least - but then decided that waiting really wasn't his thing.

"Out with it."

"Um... I don't mean to tell you what to do, but you shouldn't hate Richard for doing this..."

Batman's eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure I heard that correctly."

Beast Boy held out his arms in front of him in a pacifying gesture. "Wait, I can explain! Raven's always been unstable and I guess she killed a few policemen or something and Richard was already really mad at her so he kinda was justified-"

"You don't like her, do you?" Batman got straight to the point.

"N-no, it's not that, I-I just-" He couldn't keep up his facade under Batman's glare. "Alright. Yeah, I don't like her. I mean, I used to think she was okay, as a friend and all that, but she just got so angry and withdrawn and I couldn't help but feel like she was dangerous, ya know? Almost evil, like those villains we fought. And then she attacked us, and I mean fine, we can forgive that, but then it happened over and over and it just wasn't okay..."

His voice trailed off, but Batman's intense gaze demanded more. "Okay, fine, I admit it. She did get provoked every time it happened and we didn't really help by trying to restrain her, but I didn't think that she'd attack her friends so easily. We tried to be nice, but-" He paused and thought about it more carefully. "I guess that's not it either. After the whole Malchior thing and with Trigon and stuff, we were really nice to her and she seemed happy, but then she went back to her whole ice queen routine. I guess the real problem is, at least for me, I can't understand her. I mean, I tried, but she's just... too different. I just don't get why she is the way she is, so I suppose I am kinda biased when I say it's not Richard's fault. But still..." Beast Boy shrugged. "I still feel that way."

He looked away from Batman's glare and frown; the intensity of those two things was something that could wordlessly pry information from almost anyone, and it was not something most people could look at for more than a moment without feeling extreme discomfort.

"Well, at least you're an honest one," Batman said gruffly. "Richard would never have admitted that."

"Err... thank you?"

"Don't hold your breath," Batman continued on. "I'll be there before you know it." He turned off the screen and began gathering a few things from around his lair.

"Alfred?" He called out, knowing that his butler was nearby.

"Yes Master Wayne?" The old man appeared out of nowhere and was at his side in a moment.

"You heard everything?"

"I did. I can make all the necessary arrangements for an... important meeting... that Bruce Wayne has made with a possible client. A business trip."

Bruce Wayne removed his Batman mask and gave his butler a small smile. Alfred was always on top of things. "Alright. I will be back shortly, and possibly with one or more... guests."

"I shall make the necessary arrangements for that as well. Anything else you might need, Master Wayne?"

"No, that will be all. Thank you Alfred."

"My pleasure, Master Wayne. And if I may be so bold as to make an observation?"

"And that would be?"

"It seems that Miss Raven has acquired a new... friend." He said the word friend without just a little implication behind it.

Bruce smirked a little. "I did not miss that. But miss cotton candy hair might just be disappointed. Raven might not even pull through this one."

"She is half demon, yes?"

Alfred got a nod in response as Bruce Wayne began throwing a few things in the Batmobile from around his lair.

"She seems strong, Master Wayne."

"I don't doubt that."

"Then what reason is there to believe that she will not live?"

Bruce's eyes were dark and brooding, but the intensity of his gaze was not enough to scare his butler away. Alfred was one of the few people who could meet his stare straight on, unflinchingly.

"Perhaps I will introduce her to you eventually, and then you will now."

Alfred bowed respectfully and left the Batcave. A moment later, the whirring of a starting engine could be heard, followed by the sound of a vehicle crashing through a waterfall.

* * *

_The Watchtower, 600km above Earth's surface _

"Bruce? What do you think about this whole thing?"

The founding members of the Justice League, minus Batman of course, were gathered around their meeting table, staring at the screen with Batman's face on it.

"I'm going to see for myself. After I have a chat with my old student," came the grumbled reply. Everyone could see that Batman was very pissed off - even though he always seemed irritable in his Batman persona, he practically radiated anger even through the computer screen.

"A word of advice. Just because Nightwing screwed up doesn't mean he can't redeem himself," Superman suggested. "Not saying we're going to let him off so easily, however. But don't go overboard, Bruce."

Batman did not respond but he did nod slightly in acknowledgement of the statement.

"We're spread a bit thin right now, but I'm certain we could send a couple people to help Jump," Green Lantern spoke next. "Although, Wally should stay in central and Keystone, and Clark, you and Bruce should stay in Metropolis and Gotham since everyone seems to rely on you three a great deal to maintain the peace-" He paused as Batman turned his glare onto him. Even if he was _the _Green Lantern, Batman's willpower was an impressive thing and not something to be underestimated. "Fine. I'll meet you in Jump. Anyone else want to come?"

Everyone looked at Wonder Woman. They knew that she had... something... going on with the dark knight, although neither of them would ever admit to it.

"I - uh..."

"Stay out of this, Diana," Batman grumbled. "Hal and I will be more than enough to figure out just exactly what's going on."

"I do have one question for you though, Bruce," Green Lantern looked at him very seriously. "I heard something about the daughter of _Trigon _being in Jump and running around without anyone watching her?"

"What about it?" The other founding members looked up in surprise, all except for the Martian Manhunter, who sat back, not visibly disturbed. As a telepath, he could sense the discomfort radiating off of Batman, even if the dark knight gave no outward sign of it.

"Why didn't you tell us about this? You know she's dangerous. Trigon already beat us all once, and he's more than capable of wiping us all out, even Superman! We have to make sure she won't do anything to help him or-"

"Will you just butt out and wait until you meet her for yourself?" Batman growled irritably. "That is if she's even going to live at all."

"You... are concerned for her," the Martian spoke up and everyone looked at him in surprised.

Batman sighed. "J'onn. I hate you."

The alien was not intimidated, not that Batman was trying to be intimidating anyway. "It seems that you and this Raven are relatively good friends."

"Then what's the harm in it all? You guys really gotta lighten up. Give the poor girl a chance," Flash cut in, trying desperately to relieve the tension in the room. "There's no need to jump into things recklessly."

"Still, Wally, she's dangerous... we can't just -"

"Your sense of justice is strong, Hal, but sometimes you take it too far and-"

"Justice is what keeps us together and separates us from those super powered villains that we end up fighting all the time!"

The room broke out into a heated argument and Batman wisely decided to turn off the screen connecting him to the Watchtower. He knew that Raven had always been a controversial issue among the Justice League and that many members, especially Zatanna, were fearful of just what she could do, but he had sensed something different once he had actually gotten to _know _the girl. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he actually felt protective of her, even more so than he had been of Richard Grayson or Rachel Dawes, probably because they were quite similar in personality. And by mutual understanding, he had also understood that she _was, _in fact, a danger to humanity, but not by pure virtue of her demonic heritage alone.

No, she would be dangerous because slowly, her hope in humanity as a whole was being eroded by people who fought for supposed "justice," like Hal Jordan, or even Clark Kent, or even Barry Allen sometimes, who all fought for pure naive justice, unable to sense the necessary darker side of the world as well. Batman had clashed with them many times on these points, and though they still remained good friends, the fact remained that they could not understand each other. And so he was afraid of what the Justice League would do to Raven, but even he had to admit, Trigon was not a threat that he wanted to deal with. _Although Raven would never willingly ally herself with him either. She hates him too much. I just fear what she will do of her own accord. __If she even lives._

Really, it came down to reading the girl's emotions, which could be very difficult even for someone like Batman. Perhaps he should've asked J'onn to come rather than GL.

The whole thing seemed very delicate to him. With a bunch of heroes seeing the world only in black and white, it was difficult to understand a person stuck in the gradient of grey between justice and evil. Batman had to admit that he himself sometimes found it difficult to deal with that spectrum of grey as well, preferring to think in terms of pure "heroism" and "villainry" because it was easier. But he also understood that someone like Raven who was both human and demon, innately "evil" and "good" could never be able to deal in pure black and white. That was why she was so difficult for others to understand. And why it landed her in trouble, like it had this time.

But it was no good musing on these thoughts. There really was only one concern at the forefront of his mind, and one concern only. He hoped, with all his heart, that she would live.

* * *

A/N: Ended on a rather philosophical note, but I think that Batman would be the type to think theologically - with his superior intellect and mental capacity, he certainly has the ability to think like this for long periods of time.

Of course, that being said, he's not some pure logic theory freak... he also cares deeply for Raven because she's similar to him, and so he understands how much she suffers. It's not something that someone who doesn't understand her situation can really get so easily, which is why I figured that most of the Titans would not be able to connect with Raven because they see the world in mostly black and white rather than in shades of grey. (Although Robin/Nightwing is an exception.)

Anyway, I'm not here to give a lecture of philosophy or on character traits, but if you _do _want an explanation of why I do certain things, I would be happy to reply to a review or a PM. Remember, praise is always nice, and critique helps make a better writer, so don't hesitate to voice your thoughts :)

(I also forgot to mention... The Justice League founding members in this story will include Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and Flash - no Aquaman because I don't know much about him and he seems ...unimportant... sorry Aquaman fans :p)


	8. Wings of Discord

Disclaimer: TT/DCcomics/stuff not mine

Ugh, normally I'd be updating faster but I've been sleeping a lot more and tests and stuffs coming up so I'm not at my normal pace. Sorry. But in a couple weeks it'll all be over and hopefully I will not have failed :)

Anyway... for all the Rob/Rae fans out there, I have now posted a oneshot Robin/Raven in my other Teen Titans story so go ahead and check that out if you happen to be craving Robin/Raven. No Nightwing/Ravens yet, but soon, I promise :)

Now, back to this story.

* * *

"You got here fast," Beast Boy woke up, bleary eyed and yawning, but he didn't have the time to just sleep while the Justice League was around.

"I said I would," Batman replied gruffly. "League decided to tag along too," he gesturing to the man behind him. "I'm sure you know of Green Lantern."

Beast Boy nodded. "Pleased to finally meet you in person," he said politely, to which he got a short nod in response. Seemed like none of the Justice Leaguers were very talkative people. There was moment of tense silence in which Batman glared intently at the doors to the operating room in the hospital, so intensely that it seemed that he was actually looking past the solid objects and into the room itself. Beast Boy decided to answer his unspoken question. "They're still operating on Raven. It's already been three hours," he mentioned. "Look, Batman, I know you're concerned about her but-"

"We'll talk about this later," the dark knight said, before taking a seat outside the doors to the operating room. Across from him, the pink haired girl that he had seen on his computer screen was still laying down, but now she was at least sleeping peacefully compared to her shocked, despairing state before. Alfred was right, she did have something going on with Raven after all. He wasn't the only one who cared about her. But in stark contrast to their conern...

"Bruce," Hal Jordan sat beside him and whispered into his ear. "Someone needs to stay here and keep an eye on this... Raven..." he spoke her name with difficulty, as if it were strange that the daughter of Trigon would actually have a name and resemble a human. "I know you trust her but the League wants to make sure all of the bases are covered. Why don't you stay here while I explore the city?"

"Fine by me. But be careful. Last I heard, there are things out there that would even pose a threat to Superman."

"Deathstroke? Or Slade, whatever he calls himself these days."

"No," Batman's eyes narrowed. "Deathstroke... Slade... was never that dangerous by himself. His combat power simply was too low. There's something else, Raven mentioned it might have to do with Trigon."

"If Trigon was released, we'd all stand no chance. All of the Leaguers combined wouldn't be able to beat him."

"No, no, not Trigon. But something related to him."

Green Lantern looked puzzled. "I'm not sure one of his minions would pose much of a threat. And even if it was something like this Raven, it's not like I wouldn't be able to handle it..."

"You say that now, but if you ever have to fight her you'll know just how strong she is. I'm just saying be careful, Hal. This city's dangerous right now."

"I appreciate the concern." Green Lantern nodded curtly and left.

"League investigation?" Beast Boy asked the dark knight, who nodded in response. There was an awkward silence, where the green Titan merely stood there and looked down at Batman, who tried to ignore him. Obviously that failed.

"What do you want?" He grumbled.

"Err... right, sorry for staring. I just wanted you to know that Raven's good at hiding things from people. I don't think she's a terrible person, but... well, she's half demon. I guess it's not her fault but she's dangerous, you know? I mean, I could be wrong, but she did do a lot of things that I'm sure you know about. So like, I don't know what she's told you but it wouldn't hurt to be careful around her. Ugh-" He paused. "Sorry, I'm just voicing my doubts about this whole thing. You don't have to listen."_  
_

Batman looked at him curiously. He had been under the impression that Beast Boy was the most immature out of all the Titans, but instead here he was, handling his fears and doubts in Raven like a real man. It took a rare type of person to be completely honest with himself and to admit that he could be wrong. This was a quality that Batman hadn't seen in a long time, not in Richard, not himself, nor even in any of the Justice Leaguers except maybe Superman. Beast Boy could be very mature and insightful sometimes, at least when he was honest with himself and others.

"You might want to tell it to that girl over there," Batman pointed at Jinx, who had not moved at all. "She seems to be closer to Raven than I am."

"I tried but she kinda just ignored me."

"I see."

Another awkward silence.

"So... nice day we're having-"

"I don't think now is the time for idle chatter."

Tense silence.

"Right, sorry. I'll just go back to my room now."

"You're injured?"

"Yeah, I almost died, but Raven saved my life. I guess that's the only reason why I'm starting to believe in her again."

Batman nodded and sat on the white bench, somehow melding into the shadows even though there were none, invisible in plain sight. He had a talent for doing that.

* * *

"I thought you said that the Justice League was going to be distracted! But they've sent Green Lantern _and _Batman here! Now there's no way-"

"Relax," Sloth's languor filled voice itself made Slade feel lethargic, sapping the rage out of him. "Brother is strong enough to fight the Green one."

"That's not the point," Slade said a little more calmly. "It means that they are not sufficiently distracted by whatever diversions you have set up. The rest of them could come here on a moment's notice and then you and I both would be doomed."

"I thought you wanted attention?" Envy smirked at him. "Haven't you been jealous of all the guys that the League has been fighting all these years while you only had to deal with these small fry Titans?"

"Why you-"

"He hungers for a challenge but fears now that he bites off more than he can chew."

"I'd like to see you fight off the entire Justice League by yourselves. If they come here, all of my plans will be ruined and you will no longer have a base of operations. You'll be doomed along with me."

"Just because you may fall does not mean we will. Ever the words of the greedy; if I can't have it, then you can't either. But we're not failures like you."

"He fails because his lust for power clouds his judgement-"

Slade laughed. "Actually, that's not what I'm after at all." The demons all looked at him with blank stares. "I'm merely saying, it will ruin both of our plans. It would be in the best interest to... step up your game a little bit."

Instantly Envy flew forward and held Slade by the throat against a rock wall. "Watch your mouth, human. Brother's plan is working just fine. It is _your _ideas that have screwed this up, not ours, and because of that we have lost Pride to the humans and have the Justice League on our tail. If we didn't take the time to use your ideas we wouldn't be in this whole mess. Don't you dare complain about the Justice League to me."

"I can complain however I want," Slade shot back, unfazed by the demon's anger. "Haven't you considered that Raven getting away is your own fault and not mine? And could you possibly be afraid of that Justice League that you just said you could beat? Sounds like your pride is getting the better of you-"

Envy's hand choked off the villain's windpipe. "Don't you dare speak like that to-"

"Envy!" An angry voice called out from the darkness. "Put him down!"

The demon turned, recognizing that Wrath had arrived at last, and grumbled a little. But he released his grip after a moment of staring at his elder brother. And then he was sent flying across the room by a giant red claw.

"Don't upsetme," Wrath said softly and coldly. "And you," he turned to Slade. "Don't complain. Our diversions are working just fine. Superman and Flash should soon be finding themselves occupied. I have also arranged for some attacks to be made on Themyscira, which will draw Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl back to their amazon home. The League will still need someone to stay in their base to manage affairs, which means that the Martian will not be bothering us. The rest of the League are mostly just small fries. There is no problem at all."

Slade rubbed his neck, feeling the circulation to his head restore itself. "That's fine, but what are you going to do about Green Lantern and Batman? Plus, you are forgetting that the League does have other powerful members other than the founders."

"Perhaps you are underestimating us," Greed spoke from behind Wrath. "Just because they are the Green Lantern and the Batman does not mean that they are invincible."_  
_

"And the others that you speak of, perhaps Zatanna and Etrigan? Or Hawkgirl?"

"Or the offshoots of our dear friends Batman and Superman... the other Kryptonians and those pesky Batpeople-" *(see A/N at the end for a bit of explanation)

"Are dead," Gluttony's eyes were wide with glee. "A delicious meal."

Slade seemed impressed. "I would not have thought that you six would have enough power to defeat a couple Kryptonians and Batman's aides, but-"

"Not us," Lust murmured. "We had... some help."

"From?"

"Even father, Lord Trigon, has a master. But you need not know about that," Wrath spoke from behind the villain. "What matters right now is that once their deaths are discovered, the League will be thrown into disarray. And then you'll have all the time in the world to do whatever you like. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a certain Green Lantern to deal with."

* * *

It seemed to take forever, to the point where even Batman appeared to be asleep - though he was sitting upright still and nobody bothered to approach him to check - but eventually the red light on the ceiling flicked off and operating room's doors opened. One of the doctors walked out to find three sleeping superheroes on the benches and no one else in sight. Well, it was 4:00 AM (which is also when I'm writing this. Isn't life wonderful?), so that wasn't really surprising. They probably were all exhausted.

"Right... I'll just come back later," he muttered to himself.

"Or you could take me in to see her," Batman grumbled. The doctor looked up in surprise. Had the dark knight actually been asleep or was he - oh nevermind. The surprise quickly faded and the doctor took off his mask, revealing a deepset frown and a furrow in his brows.

Batman studied the grim look on the doctor's face and forced down the fear bubbling up inside him. "Does she live?"

The doctor hesitated. "Well, yes."

"What's that supposed to mean? And why do you look so disturbed?"

"We... ran into some complications while trying to replenish her blood." The doctor took a deep breath. "We ran some tests and her blood doesn't match any of the groups, O, A, B, AB, nothing. And judging by the molecular structure, she's not even human. I understand that this might be shocking but-"

"No. I already knew that. Take me to see her."

The doctor looked surprised but did not comment. "Right... right this way then."

"Wait," a sleepy, distraught voice sounded from behind them and both men turned to see Jinx rub her eyes before getting off the bench. "I'm coming too."

"I'm sorry, miss, but she really should only be seeing one visitor at a time and-"

"Please," Jinx implored the man. "Please, I _need _to see her."

The doctor shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter. Follow me."

* * *

Any normal person would have slowly regained consciousness after that long, extensive procedure, but not Raven. She was ripped unceremoniously and quite violently from her subconscious state by the sensation of a dark, malevolent force nearby. Her eyes flew open and she sat up, mind and body on full alert, taking in the shocked faces of the all the doctors around her, who clamored for her to lie back down and regain her strength before she fainted from blood loss and the unclosed incision still on her chest. But she didn't care, they didn't matter at the moment.

There it was, the void bubbling at the edges of her senses like some demented creature of her own imagination disturbing the balance in her mind. She felt a surge of fear well up inside her at the sheer unsettling feeling that it gave off and found herself unable to control it. It had been a long time since she had been scared like this. This wasn't the type of fear that she normally felt, the fear of failure and being rejected and such. She was scared by virtue of this... whatever it was... being much stronger than her and giving off a killer destructive vibe. Like some stalker in the night, it creeped around just beyond the radius of her awareness, sapping all the heat from the room, leaving her cold and trembling.

She felt very helpless, a feeling _very _alien to the demon girl, and tried to summon her powers. Dark streaks of energy flew through the air and she heard the glass of a couple light bulbs shatter but the thing was still there, unfazed. Slowly the void began spreading toward her, inky blackness devoid of all light covering everything in a disturbed oblivion. What freaked her out the most was that the doctors could not seem to see it, the sinister darkness - to them, the operating room's physical environment was still the same as it had ever been.

Was she just imagining things? Or was this occurring in her mindscape? _Calm down, Raven. Calm down. It's just an illusion. I can deal with this. It's just my imagination... _And then the darkness stretched out with a tentacle that seemed like it came from something _not quite alive _and the flood of emotions entered her body, accompanied by some pure, unrestrained fear that she could not explain. Raven suddenly screamed, holding her head in her hands. The dark presence gave off a low chuckle.

The doctors backed away as a second set of eyes opened just above her normal pair and glowed dangerously red. Her skin began to turn a dark shade of crimson, like blood, and her hair brightened from its usual purple to a pure white color. As she hissed at them, it became apparent that her canine teeth were longer, like fangs, and her fingernails and toenails lengthened into obsidian claws.

At first, it seemed very much like she was going to kill all of them, but after a couple seconds of observation, they all realized that this was a defense mechanism. She was trying to protect herself from something. The four red eyes darted back and forth, slightly glazed over, looking not at the girl's physical surroundings but something else entirely.

Raven gave off a long, low hiss as she sensed the darkness approach her. She was barely in control of her own fear but somehow managed to speak steadily, even if she sounded a little shaken.

_"Who are you?"_ But when she heard her own voice, she was shocked to find out that she was not talking in English but in one of the ancient demon languages that she didn't even know she knew.

_"Child of Trigon, why do you ask who I am? Do you not already know?" _Now that she thought about it, it was clearly a female voice. Somehow that only added to the fear inside her.

_"Who are you?" _Raven repeated, a little more fearfully as the darkness advanced menacingly upon her. _"What do you want?!" _Her panic showed much more clearly on her face now. _"Get away from me!" _

Her back hit the wall, preventing her from retreating further. Looking around wildly, Raven saw only a great void closing in on her, blotting out all light except for a tiny circle around her. Her physical surroundings faded into the oblivion and she formed a dark bubble of energy around her instinctively, trying to block whatever it was trying to get to her. It only scared her more when the darkness absorbed her power and actually touched her. She screamed again and tore at the wall behind her, trying to break through.

The gloomy shadows tore forward and formed tentacles that wrapped themselves around her ankles and wrists, restraining her movements. Raven's four eyes widened. She gasped as another wave of emotions inundated her, breaking down her mental barriers completely. All of her repressed feelings, love, anguish, a saddeningly low amount of happiness, everything tore her at once and she found herself unable to sort them out. Her powers spiraled out of control, completely out of control and she released all the energy she could, draining all of her strength in a huge outflow of dark magic.

It was a mark of this thing's power that it was able to absorb everything she threw at it, albeit it seemed unsettled after the pulsating sorcery from Raven had ended.

_You hurt me, _the voice growled at her. _That's impressive, for a demon whelp such as yourself. With that kind of power, you could fight on par with your father even if he was at full strength. But it's not quite enough to take me out. _

Raven was completely frozen with terror as a black tendril came forward and caressed her face. She swore she could sense the whatever it was in the darkness lick its lips as if she were some delicious meal, or perhaps in lust, like she was its sex toy. But as horrified as she was, she could do nothing.

_Dear, sweet Pride... your father is the least of your worries... _

Raven trembled in the darkness's grip, defenseless. Her red eyes scanned the blackness that was draped like a heavy shroud all about her, trying to penetrate through to reestablish some connection with reality, _something _that could break her free from this... thing. But no matter which way she stretched out, there was only the too dense void. No escape.

She screamed again and this time it didn't stop at just one. She screamed and screamed out of sheer terror and

* * *

Batman jammed the sedative into one of the veins in her thigh and caught her as she collapsed into his arms not a moment later. After another few moments, the white hair, second set of eyes, and red skin faded back into her normal form.

_So it wasn't a trick. She truly is half demon blooded. _Batman looked around at all the doctors, who were watching him with fear in their eyes, although he was rather upset by the obvious distaste radiating off from some of them. Now that they knew she was half demon, there was bound to be some bigotry. He decided to ignore them and looked back at Jinx, who was staring at Raven, eyes wide open, dismayed. She hadn't quite believed it at first when Nightwing had said it, but Raven had just proved that she was a demon, the four eyes revealing her connection to Trigon no less.

And she had basically gone berserk, although it didn't seem like she was trying to destroy anything. It was really weird... seeing a demon terrified like that.

Suddenly Jinx's sensed something and her head snapped around. Her eyes glowed pink as she studied one of the shadows in the corner of the room that seemed very much like it was something else entirely. Like something _alive. _

"Batman?" Raven's tired voice sounded and her eyes opened.

"I'm here," he said more gently than anyone ever imagined he could. "You're safe now."

"No," she breathed out. "No..." The horror came back into her eyes. "It's still here. It's not gone yet! Put me down!" She started shrieking and thrashing around in his arms. It was lucky that he was so much stronger or she definitely would have broken free, but as it was, he was having a hard time holding her down already.

"Jinx! Get me another sedative!" He barked out, but then realized that the pink haired sorceress was also frozen over with fear. _What the hell was wrong with these people? _

And then he felt it too. An inexplicable sensation that for god's sake, even made him feel scared. Powerless.

_Take care of her for me, _a clearly female voice echoed inside his mind, and the darkness was gone.

* * *

Green Lantern practically jumped out of his skin as the voice sounded from behind him.

"Who's there?" He said sharply, looking into the shadows of the still dark forest behind Titans' Tower; the sun still had a couple hours before it was due. "Show yourself!"

A chuckle came from behind him again, and then in another direction, and another as well. How had this many enemies snuck up on him undetected? The rare feeling of nervousness came over him and a single bead of sweat ran down his face.

"The League stays out of Jump," a voice growled out, and four red eyes appeared.

Hal Jordan frowned. "I knew it. So it really was you, daughter of that wretched spawn-"

"Do I sound like a woman to you?"

"We can assure you, sister Pride has nothing to do with this. She isn't your problem. We are."

"Well, actually, I am. Let me speak to him first," another voice, this one gruff, not unlike Batman's but slightly higher pitched.

The demon stepped out of the darkness and pulled down his hood. His straight, white hair ran down to his shoulders, the vermilion colored skin and red eyes reminiscent of his father, although he lacked the horns. His face, however, was slightly more angular like Raven's and he lacked the sneering, cruel quality of his father's demeanor, instead seeming much more subdued than all of his brothers even. His mouth was set into a hard, straight line and the lines on his face gave off the impression of sadness, perhaps?

Funny that his name was "Wrath," he said in greeting. "Welcome to Jump city, Green Lantern." He extended his telepathic powers. "Or may I call you Hal Jordan."

"I suppose it is a common thing for you demons to flaunt your powers to intimidate others," Hal Jordan remarked. "But you'll find that I'm not so easily impressed."

Wrath blinked a couple times. "True. I had forgotten that you are one of the more powerful members of the League. Indeed, you are strong enough to defeat me if I was by myself."

"A demon swallowing his pride?"

"Pride is a worthless thing. Even my sister, whose name is Pride, knows this truth. When you want to get something done... you can't let your pride cloud your judgment," Wrath replied rather calmly.

Five other shadowy figures came out from the darkness and surrounded Green Lantern, who kept up his facade of appearing in control of the situation. The five hoods went down and he found himself looking at five other demons, who bore some resemblance to the one who had called himself Wrath.

"Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Envy, and Lust. I had heard about you, but I didn't believe that Trigon could have seven children who would survive past childbirth."

"The world is full of surprises, green one," Sloth said slowly.

"Give it up. You may be powerful, but you cannot possibly defeat all six of us at once."

"And if I give up, who's to say that you won't kill me anyway?"

Wrath laughed. "True. Very true. Then, I suppose this fight is inevitable-" He raised a red shield around himself as Green Lantern struck out with his power ring.

The emerald light bounced off of the shield and the demon was completely unharmed. Hal Jordan frowned. This was probably that "soulself" power that Batman had mentioned; as long as they had that, it would be very difficult to penetrate their defenses with sheer power. He had to wait until they attacked him to counter, but the only problem with that tactic was that there were five of them.

He flew into the sky, hoping they would follow, but the demons were smarter than that. They couldn't possibly outmaneuver him the air due to his speed, so they simply extended their red energy in the form of claws. He blocked them easily with constructs of green light. As long as his mind wasn't disturbed or his willpower didn't fail, he wasn't going to be harmed by any physical attacks.

"You'll have to do better than that," he called out, hoping to taunt them into doing something reckless.

He got several bolts of red energy in reply and he barely managed to dodge aside. He tried to block the next wave with a shield but they phased right through and struck him square on the chest. And apparently did nothing. Green Lantern frowned, puzzled. _Those weren't physical attacks or my ring would've blocked them. That can only mean... _

The red light burst back out from his chest and began forming images in the air.

"What do you fear, Hal Jordan?" A disembodied voice spoke. "What do you hate the most in your life?"

"Evil," he replied without hesitation.

"Evil," a pair of voices responded, and the crimson light changed form. Hal Jordan looked at himself, only it wasn't himself exactly. He recognized it as the time he had turned into Parallax, destroyed the Guardians (except for Ganthet) and terrorized much of the universe.

"Evil," Parallax spoke in a voice reminiscent of Green Lantern's own. "You mean yourself?"

"I-... I was being controlled," he muttered. "That wasn't me."

"Fear," the lights morphed into the figures of all the dead Guardians, dead by his own hands. "You feared becoming the evil that you had fought for so long, and you were afraid that you would disrupt the order of the universe. That fear did not go unrealized."

Hal Jordan's eyes narrowed. "I said, it wasn't me!" He blasted green light at the red images, which suddenly took the form of living Guardians who were torn apart by the viridian from his power ring. He still wasn't visibly shaken, although there was something stirring inside him. "You're not going to break me like this," he muttered. "I already came to terms with what I did when I was Parallax."

"You have come to terms with killing all of your friends?" The lights shifted into the images of Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, all of the other Green Lanterns.

A swarm of very familiar voices spoke to him all at once. "You killed us. We trusted you. You were supposed to be a beacon of light in the darkness. You were the best of us. Why did you fail us?"

Hal gritted his teeth and raised his ring to blast them apart but suddenly his muscles locked up. He couldn't do it. The crimson images of Kyle Rayner and John Stewart came up to him and looked at him sadly. John even put a ghostly hand on his shoulder, and the touch felt very real, like he was still alive. "Now you are the only one of us left. Hal, you must not fail. You are the Green Lantern Corps' last hope and salvation. Perhaps you may redeem yourself in the coming conflict."

"I do not need redemption."

"Don't you?" Kyle's voice was a little more bitter. "After everything you did?! You went against the Guardians, Hal! You killed them! The great masters of the universe, all their knowledge and wisdom and you violently destroyed everything! You-"

"Kyle," John calmed him. "You don't have to taint yourself with his failure. You remained true even to the very end. He was the only one who fell. He just has to realize it."

"I said, it _was not my fault,_" Hal Jordan muttered angrily. "I didn't mean to do it. I just let my-"

"Arrogance cloud your sense of judgment," Wrath spoke from below. "And you called us demons prideful."

"Shut up! You're demons! You have no right to talk-"

"Hard as it may be to accept, they are right, Hal," John continued on in a grieving tone. "I wish I had not seen you become the prideful fool you are now, but I suppose there is no changing the past. When you fight evil, you must have an unwavering conviction and sense of justice. When you falter, even in the slightest, then you may become the villain yourself. As you did. You cannot falter, Hal. You cannot fail again."

"I will not."

"But that is your greatest fear, isn't it?" The disembodied voice was back before the red light spread all around him and transformed the entire landscape. Everything was scorched to the ground, blackened and burnt, bleak lands devoid of all life and the ruins of Jump city in the distance were slowly crumbling to the ground. He recognized it as a vision of Trigon's hell he had been shown.

"This old trick again? You won't be able to beat me with this stupid thing."

"Look more carefully, Hal Jordan, and see the depth of your own folly," Wrath replied.

Green Lantern frowned and looked into a distance, where there was a glimmer of green light on the horizon. An instant later, he found himself face to face with himself as Parallax again. A heavyset frown came over his face. He hated being reminded of that form.

Parallax looked grimly at him. "There are different levels of fear. It may take the form of fear of failure, when you do not have enough power to protect that which you care about. But this does not concern someone as arrogant as you, Hal Jordan. Your pride in your own strength prevents that. Your greatest fear is turning into me. Your failure to the world is not your lack of power, so you think, but becoming the evil you sought to destroy. Because of your hubris, you fail to see that your meager power is but a breath in the wind, insignificant in the face of the universe. And that is what allowed one such as the Spectre to take over your mind so easily. It also weakens your own defenses against the evil that plagues mankind, and makes you susceptible to said corruption."

"I do not fear you," he said weakly.

"If you do not fear your own power, how can you hope to use it properly?"

Hal Jordan froze in place. He didn't have an answer to that.

"If you do not properly fear your own power, how can you ensure that you can control it? You fight without caution. This is why you fail."

"I do not... fail..." he murmured.

"What happened to that unbreakable will of yours, Hal? You're supposed to be the Green Lantern-"

"It's not easy having the greatest blunder of your life shoved into your face over and over again, okay?! I was wrong! I was arrogant! I was overconfident! And I screwed up! Okay?! I failed!"

"Twice."

"What do you mean, twice," Hal growled at the image of himself, feeling a mixture of disappointment in himself and raw anger.

"I mean this," Parallax gestured behind him, where a thousand bolts of red energy were rapidly blasting toward him. Before he could react, they had all slammed into his body and he fell unconscious.

* * *

Batman carried Raven to one of the vacant hospital rooms and set her down on the bed. She sat there, cross legged, and stared up into his face. He stared back. Wordless communication.

Her mouth twitched. _Sorry. _She seemed to say. She looked down, ashamed. _I kinda freaked out. You shouldn't have seen that._

He shrugged. _It's okay. _An eyebrow raised underneath his mask. _But what was that thing? It was... unsettling, even to me. _

She frowned. He couldn't tell if that was an _I'm not going to tell you _or _I don't know. _But she didn't seem to want to tell him either way so he just left it at that. He'd question her later about it. Batman frowned as well. _Are you okay? __  
_

She nodded slowly. Her brow furrowed. _What... do you think is going to happen now? Now that they know I'm a demon. __  
_

Batman's face was completely still. _I don't know, _he seemed to suggest. He pointed at her chest. _But first things first, you have to get that wound closed up. _

She put a hand on the incision near her heart and a blue light began to glow. _I'll be fine. I'm just exhausted. _She could sense his concern through the mask. She raised both eyebrows at him. _I'm not weak, you know. I'm telling you, I'm okay. __  
_

Batman sighed inwardly. And then he looked very pissed. _If you're okay, then I suppose I should leave and let you rest. In that case, Richard is going to get a piece of my mind. _He made a fist. _  
_

Raven looked scared, he thought, but also uncertain. _Perhaps... you shouldn't jump into things so rashly. I don't even know any more. Richard's just... I don't know. _

Batman nodded curtly.

"Are you guys gonna say something or you just gonna stand there like a pair of statues?" Jinx finally spoke up, frustrated at the way they communicated in complete silence.

Both of them turned to look at her blankly. Raven's look was completely cold, stoic, but she could see the turmoil behind that mask. And Batman's glare - he might have been looking at her neutrally, but for him, that was still a glare - was intense, as usual, as if he was looking into her soul.

"Enjoy your time alone with your girlfriend. Just don't get too rough with her," he muttered to her before giving her a small smirk and walking past her.

Jinx's jaw dropped. "You just made a joke." She shook her head in disbelief. "And Raven's not lesbian and I'm not about to have sex with her after she's been hurt so-"

"I'll be back soon," he cut her off.

Raven sent her irritation at Batman's retreating back and he gave her a small chuckle as he felt her embarrassment and exasperation. And then, before she could even blink, he was just gone, disappeared into thin air. And she was alone with Jinx.

"Raven, I-" she bit her lip, unsure of how she should approach the demoness. The violet haired girl scared her so much, but there was also something about her that was so attractive... and there was also the fact that they understood each other very well. But she was a _demon. _That was just... Jinx honestly had no clue what to think about that.

Raven shrugged. "I think you wanted something more from me than just friendship."

Jinx nodded slowly. "I did."

Their eyes met and they found themselves entranced by each other, the deep, endless pools of violet masking the sanguine depths within, and the bright, pink, cat-like slits, that could somehow both be smiling and downcast at the same time. Jinx's eyes shimmered and she detected something similar in Raven, a shift in the light on Raven's irises indicating a hint of tears welling up. Of course, Raven simply didn't cry, Jinx knew that.

But she also knew that from that slight display of emotion, Raven really did want her... whether as a friend or something more, that remained to be seen. The slight dullness in her own eyes showed her own discomfort, or perhaps uncertainty, and it did not go unnoticed by Raven either, who frowned and suddenly turned away. Jinx could sense the sadness radiating off of her and she knew that the demon girl thought that she was hated.

The pink Titan opened her mouth to speak, but then thought better of it and leaned over to look into Raven's face, concern showing on her own. Their eyes met again. In Raven's violet ones, a hint of surprise was displayed behind the dark lashes. Jinx still did care about her. And the pink haired girl smiled a little.

"I guess I figured out how you can talk to Batman without actually talking to him. I didn't think that your face would be so... expressive." She paused and stood up straight again. "You know, to me, you always seemed like you were made out of stone or something. You never gave away any of your emotions. But I guess I just wasn't paying enough attention."

Raven frowned. "I wasn't aware that my face gave away my emotions so easily..."

"Babe, I can ready you like an open book," Jinx smirked at her. "I can tell exactly what you're thinking."

The violet girl raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? And what am I thinking about now?"

"Err- I meant feeling, not thinking."

"Oh? That's funny, I can tell what you're feeling _and _thinking-"

"That's not fair! You're a telepath and an empath!" Jinx glared at her, putting her hands on her hips.

Raven laughed softly. For some reason, being around the other girl made her feel more relaxed. She was fun to talk to.

"Glad you're loosening up a bit, Rae," Jinx smiled at her. "I was scared that you'd turn back into a demon when you saw me and try to kill me or some shit, but you didn't."

"Why would I do that?"

"Well, I kinda ran away from you when Nightwing told me you were a demon, remember? And I could tell you were upset but I didn't defend you at all. I guess I acted like some cold-hearted bitch 'cause I was scared of you, you know? Sorry, Rae. I shouldn't have done that."

Raven shrugged. "I got used to that a long time ago. I don't kill people just because of it."

"So we can still be friends?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

"I guess so." Jinx sat beside Raven on the hospital bed.

"I'm honestly surprised you're not scared of me," the demoness remarked, looking down at her hands. "Most people wouldn't try to talk to someone who was just a rampaging demon moments ago."

"I'll admit that I'm a little afraid," Jinx paused for a moment. "Okay, I'm still really scared. But you didn't hurt me, so I thought it was worth a shot to talk to you."

Raven sighed and lay back on the bed. "You're weird, you know that?"

"Yeah, like you aren't," the pink haired girl shot back.

"I never said it was a bad thing."

"You never said it was a good thing either."

"Well then it doesn't have to be bad or good. It just is."

"You're pretty stubborn, aren't you."

"So are you."

"Well I have to be if I want to talk to you, or nothing will ever get through that thick head of yours."

"Since when did I have a thick head?"

"Since now."

Raven sat back up and glared at the girl, who giggled a little.

"Sorry. You're just fun to mess with."

Raven sighed and tried to pretend to be irritated, but the amusement pouring off of the other girl was too much for her and she smirked as well. Laughter was contagious, it seemed. _  
_

"You're taking this awfully well. If I talked to you like this before, you would've torn my throat out by now."

"You never really got to know me before."

"Well judging by the way you dealt with Beast Boy."

"Yeah, yeah. I guess I just had enough of having a bad temper."

"You're still pretty angry nowadays... just not towards me. Or ol' Batman." Raven glared at her and Jinx laughed again. "See?"

"What makes you think I like being made fun of?"

"Aww, c'mon Rae, you take everything too seriously..."

"I just don't like having my worst traits shoved in my face. It reminds me of all the horrible things I've done because I'm just a terrible person," she muttered.

"Will you stop saying that already?" Jinx huffed at her. "Seriously, beating down on yourself all the time isn't going to make you feel better."

"Neither is you sitting here messing with me," Raven commented bitterly.

"Raven-"

"Jinx. I'm a _demon_. If you want to irritate me, fine, but you're digging your own grave."

"Whoa, what's with the random mood swings? You were all happy a moment ago and now you're all-"

"Angry? Pissed? Ice queen mode? Maybe I'm not who you think I am. I-"

"Maybe you're just in denial," Jinx shot back. "Maybe you _want _to think you're horrible. Seems like you've thought of yourself as a terrible person for a long time, so long that you've just gotten used to it. So now whenever something goes wrong, you think it's your fault."

"That makes no sense. Don't give me that, Jinx. That's totally a non sequitur-"

"Maybe your logic isn't as good as you think it is," the pink girl shot back. "I don't think you know your own feelings as well as you think you do. You keep 'em locked up all the time, after all."

Raven pounded a fist on the bed and glared menacingly at the Titan, who drew back slightly, fearful, but also determined at the same time. "Leave," she growled. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Raven, I'm not trying to-"

"Leave! Get out of here!"

Jinx frowned. "Fine. If you want to be that way."

She turned away and began walking out of the room. But when she reached the doorway, she turned back and gave Raven a sorrowful look before leaving. A moment later, tears were silently flowing down her face.

* * *

Batman stared down at the slumped figure of Nightwing, who lay unmoving against the far wall of his jail cell. Upon seeing the dark knight standing in front of the bars, the Titan's head lifted slightly in acknowledgement that he was there, then moved back down again. His eyes stared at the floor, unfocused, lifeless.

"I warned you about controlling your temper. And being paranoid."

Nightwing did not respond. He didn't need to. They both knew that he knew he had screwed up big time. They also knew that his paranoia and lack of control weren't going to be cured with petty words. Both he and Batman were affected by action, not rhetoric.

"Get up," the dark knight growled at him. "Come with me."

Nightwing looked up, surprised. "They didn't throw me in jail just for you to bust me out-"

"I don't care," Batman grumbled, slightly more harshly than before.

The Titan knew that his old mentor was furious with him, but he also knew that Batman's discipline and self control were almost supernatural. He wouldn't do anything rash or stupid, unlike what Nightwing himself had done.

He got up and as Batman picked open the lock to his cell, he stepped out and followed the dark knight down the hall.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"I know I messed up-"

"I know you did too."

Nightwing wasn't surprised at Bruce's coldness toward him. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

"That's not good enough."

"I know. It never was."

"Because it doesn't fix the problem. I - we - have to instill in your mind a sense of restraint."

"I- okay." He paused. "I'm surprised you haven't beaten the shit out of me yet."

"If I did, I would be no better than you."

"I see..." Nightwing followed Batman out into the street, where the sun was finally beginning to rise after the long, eventful night.

* * *

It was back. The sun should've been rising outside of the window in Raven's room, but instead it brought with it that same, boundless fear that she had felt before. Plunged into darkness, Raven felt a familiar presence approach, the familiar tentacles shoot out, and the familiar voice caress her.

_I thought I might find you alone eventually._

_What do you want? _Raven shoved down the terror growing inside her. This... thing... did not seem to want to kill her, but that didn't stop her from being afraid of it.

_Relax, girl. I merely wish to speak to you. _And as it spoke inside her mind, the strange, obscuring tones lacing its voice disappeared. And when it spoke again, Raven could tell that it was a woman's smooth, low voice talking. _Do you know who I am? _

_I don't know, and I don't think I want to. _

_Don't be so scared, Pride. Why do I frighten you so? Is it because you know what I am? _

_I... _now that she thought about it, she didn't even know why. It wasn't because she was a lot weaker than this thing; she hadn't been terrified of her father in the past just because he was stronger than her. Although the feeling of helplessness certainly didn't make her feel comfortable, to say the least.

_Funny, since I am not even the mistress of Fear. Tell me, child of Trigon, why do you fear your own kind? _

Raven's eyes narrowed. _Are you saying you're related to me? _

_Not by blood. _

_But by race - by heritage -_

_Yes. _

"No," she actually spoke out loud, her voice no more than a breathy whisper.

_Be at ease. Not all are like Trigon, seeking you merely as a pawn or to destroy your mind. Although I will admit that there are plenty who do wish to use you for those purposes, _the woman thing's voice spoke wryly. _As you can guess, _she continued, _I am not one of those. __  
_

_Then what do you want with me?_

_Perhaps you shall find out if we can meet face to face. _

_As if I could trust you with anything-_

_You do not trust me because of the fear boiling inside your heart. _

_I don't trust you because I don't even know who or what you are! _Actually, Raven knew perfectly well just what it was. She just didn't want to admit it.

_Indeed, you may know of what I may be, but you probably don't know me by name. Very well then, I shall tell you. Know my name and remember it well- _Suddenly, the presence shifted uncomfortably and seemed to withdraw. _Ah, never mind then. We shall speak another time. I must take my leave. _

_Wait!_

_My apologies, Pride - Raven, _the woman's voice used her human name. _Someone... important... is here to see me and it would be folly to antagonize him. We will keep in touch... _

The darkness faded, leaving a very irritated Raven behind.

* * *

A/N: Awesome, ended on another cliffhanger thingy, but fear not, we shall learn what this thing is in due course (although I already gave a hint as to what it is. You should be able to tell at least a couple very important things about it)

Anyway... a couple of notes:

I'm not including most of the Superman/Batman/Flash/ any of the superhero families because it would simply be too many characters to keep track of (this will become more relevant after I introduce the rest of my made up characters). The ones that I AM including are Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Catwoman (eventually, because why not), and Kid Flash (and maybe a couple others that I haven't thought of, but certainly not many more)

- it's already hard enough to develop all six of Raven's brothers and have you guys keep track of them, but with them it's easier because their name sort of represents their personality (with the exception of Wrath). The other characters I will introduce later won't be like this.

A little something on Slade - I always thought Slade was a very dangerous villain not because of his fighting power or even his masterminding (which the Joker is probably better at) but because you don't know what he wants. He doesn't seem to have a set goal and wealth and power don't seem to concern him in the way they do with other villains. So the big question of what does he want is never really answered.

And a little something on Jinx and Nightwing - ah, Jinx sort of messed up with Raven, didn't she? They aren't exactly close enough yet for her to tease Raven like that, and we all know how bad the tempers of demons are. Of course, in any good relationship there is conflict too, so I suppose it isn't completely unwarranted...

A lot of people think Nightwing's a dick (no pun intended) and deserves to be beaten up. Well, he probably does, but Batman's not going to be the one to do it. I'll leave it at that.

Finally, Green Lantern... he's certainly got a strong will, one to match that of Batman - according to the comics - but _everyone _has a weak spot, and his is his own ego. That's why when he has six powerful demons trying to play with his mind, and mind games are Raven and her brothers' specialty, even he will be vulnerable. Just trying to show that heroes aren't infallible.

- SPOILERISH THINGY -

But it's not like I'm just going to kill him off... he's Green Lantern. He's not vital to the story but whatever.

- END SPOILERISH THINGY -

I might have missed addressing a couple things, but that is why there is something wonderful called a review box, where you guys can praise me, critique me, give suggestions, remind me of stuff, flame me, or do whatever else you like. (But actually, don't flame me. It's not something anyone really wants to see.)

See you next chapter.


	9. Convergence II

Disclaimer: TT, DC stuffz not mine

Quick note, I lied at the end of last chapter... after watching the batman animated series, I decided I liked the character of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, so I'm including her! More characters, yay. (but no Timothy Drake 'cause too lazy to include him).

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

The sun rose above the pale horizon, its dusky rays cascading over the land and upon three cylinders hidden away behind a ring of rocks. Parked beside it was a certain black car with a bat emblem on it, although it was empty at the time. Although, to the standard passerby, it would look like there was nothing there at all, just a bunch of reddish dirt. Cloaking devices were one of Wayne Enterprises specialties.

Beneath the ground, a distance away, a certain masked man pounded his fist on a table and yelled in fury as he entered his lair and found the three cylinders gone. Now his plans were ruined! He had to come up with another way to make that man, Nightwing, go mad, humiliate him in front of his friends and the city, and prove that heroes really were not heroes.

Well, that was going to be much more difficult now. He was up against a formidable foe - intelligence, infiltration, and espionage were not things that you could fight Batman on. Although he never thought that the dark knight would have caught up to him so quickly and taken care of business, but...

And then Slade frowned. Batman wasn't the type to just leave someone who had harmed a member of his makeshift family alone. Slade _had _humiliated Nightwing quite a bit already and caused Raven to be hurt several times... it was quite strange that the dark knight had just left him unharmed even if he knew about the villain.

Or had he really?

Slade's eyes widened as he noticed the little bat-device taped to his computer and he jumped aside, right as it exploded. Batman was known to be quite threatening to those who threatened the people he cared about.

* * *

"Raven!" Jinx thrust open the doors to Raven's medical ward to find her in the middle of putting on her hospital gown, dressed only in a bra and underwear.

The violet haired girl's eyes narrowed. "What do you think you're doin-"

Jinx moved over quickly, a serious expression on her face. Raven quieted immediately, sensing that something was wrong. Jinx opened the doors and looked outside briefly before going back to Raven. "There's a mob outside," she muttered. "They want your blood."

Raven groaned. "Knew it was going to happen sometime. Problem is, I'm not strong enough to fight them off right now."

"That's what I'm here for," Jinx smirked at her, though it disappeared quickly - even she found little humor in the seriousness of her friend's predicament. She felt rather sad that Raven seemed so accepting that she was going to be hated by everyone by mere virtue of who she was... a demon. Half blooded or not, she was a monster to them, and at times, Jinx fancied that Raven thought herself a monster too. Well, strike that. Often times, Raven thought of herself as a monster. She knew that, but it still hurt to see that Raven had simply acknowledged it so easily.

Of course, Raven was strong, she could deal with it, but it was hard to see someone life a miserable life knowing nothing but gloom, solitude, and pain. What kind of life like that was worth living?

Then again, she had heard that Raven had tried to commit suicide a couple times so...

"Raven, we have to get you out of here," she spoke softly again as Raven finished putting on some clothes - civilian clothes, jeans, and a dark hoodie - and Jinx handed her a wig to hide her violet hair. "Hopefully they won't recognize you."

Raven shrugged. "If they do, I'll be ready."

"Ready for what?" Jinx looked at her suspiciously. She got a light sigh in response.

"It's obvious, isn't it? I'm hated here. I not only attacked their protectors, the Teen Titans, in the past, but they also probably think I'm the reason Nightwing's gone berserk. After all, I've been there every single time he's gone crazy. And I'm a _demon,_ Jinx. Even average people know what that means. They'll probably want to tear me limb from limb."

"And you're just going to let them?! Raven!-"

"Why not? It's not like it even matters. I'm just some insignificant life-"

"You're not insignificant to me." Jinx blurted out, a faint blush forming on her face. "I care about you."

"Oh. Well..." Raven paused. "I guess we are friends, aren't we..."

_How oblivious can she be? _"Uh, yeah. Friends. And as your _friend, _I suggest we get out of here before they break in." Jinx grabbed Raven's wrist and dragged her out of the room into the empty hall. She looked around a couple times and then swore under her breath as a bunch of shouts came from the right side of the hallway, accompanied by the sound of a couple gunshots. She looked into Raven's eyes - she seemed a bit worried - and started going down the other way. Leading them right into a dead end.

Jinx swore again and broke the wall down, dragging Raven out into the street. The violet girl looked at her, rather bemused, but said nothing. She held out a hand and struggled a bit as she repaired the wall, still suffering from the severity of her previous injures, but it was fixed in due course.

"Jump doesn't look like the happy place it once was," she muttered. "If I didn't know better, I'd say we were in a place more like Gotham. Not quite that bad yet, but..."

"Lots of stuff has been happenin'," Jinx replied, taking one of Raven's arms and wrapping it around her shoulders to help support the other girl. "Demons, Slade, and even the Justice League. Ol' GL was here too."

Raven frowned. Hal Jordan was not someone she wanted to have around. He was the type that would stop at nothing to strike her down because she was half demon, the type that saw the world only in terms of black and white and had his own notion of "purity of justice," which was not really justice at all but tyranny. Well, she knew that at least Batman was on her side. Maybe that would prevent the Justice League from hunting her down.

"Raven? Earth to Raven?" Jinx waved a hand in front of her face, and Raven's eyes came un-glazed over.

"Sorry," she murmured. "Just distracted."

"Right..." The pink haired girl gave her a worried look but decided to drop it. "Well, let's head up to the Tower then. Nobody will bother us there."

* * *

"Batman." Nightwing took a deep breath before talking to the dark knight, who was no more than a shadow walking beside him in the growing light of dawn. He got no reply, but could sense the anger, or perhaps disappointment radiating off of the other man. It wasn't like he wasn't angry or a bit unsettled himself, not after what he had done yesterday to Raven - no, she did not deserve what he did to her, he could see that now - or with all of the tricks Slade had been playing with him, but he still didn't want to fight with his old mentor. Sure, they had their differences and he had hated Batman for a while simply because he worked the way he did and treated him only like some tool to be used for the pursuit of justice. But, ultimately, walking next to the man right now, he wanted to make peace.

"Bruce..."

"Shut up and walk."

Nightwing fell silent and the continued on their merry way. Batman led them to a motorboat and began taking them across the bay, past the Tower, to the forest behind it, where they landed and began continuing up into the hills behind Titans' Tower. The sun was still no more than a tiny semicircle on the horizon, glowing faintly in the morning mist, and Richard Grayson thought that it seemed peaceful here. The freshness of the air in the forest, the slight bite of the morning cold, everything seemed rejuvenating, invigorating. Well, minus the obviously gloomy, pissed off Batman walking beside him. But the dark knight said nothing as the walked through the forest and up the hills until the trees thinned out and they came to a certain ring of rocks. Batman stopped and Nighwing looked at him quizzically. The older man said nothing and pulled a remote out of his pocket.

"Surprise," he muttered, and the air fizzled for a moment before three cylinders appeared, each one holding a body within it. Starfire, Terra, and Cyborg.

Nightwing's eyes widened. "How - they were supposed to be dead! The acid-"

"Diluted acetone," Batman muttered. "Strong enough to dissolve certain plastics and stone, but not concentrated enough to burn through a human body. Slade set it up just to make it look like it was acid."

Nightwing frowned. "So he tricked me."

"Yes, and you fell for it because you couldn't control yourself. And because you didn't _think _before you acted-"

"Bruce, I-"

"Richard," Batman growled in reply. "I've had enough of this. You're going to learn your lesson this time. No more nonsense from you, not at a time like this, when your city's going up in fire. Just look at it."

Batman forcibly turned Nightwing toward Jump, which was destroyed in many areas and burning in others. "Is this what you call protecting your city? Look at it!"

The masked hero's eyes closed. "I know, okay?! I screwed up! Really badly! But yelling at me now isn't going to fix it! You just want to vent your own frustration on me! You're just mad because... because... why are you even so mad anyway? It's not like I haven't lost control before, but you were never this angry."

"You'll just have to guess."

Nightwing thought for a moment and frowned. "The only time you're like this is when the people you care about get hurt..." He paused. "Raven?"

He ducked as Batman threw a punch at him, but he wasn't quick enough to dodge the kick that followed. He groaned as he hit one of the rocks.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you," Batman growled at him. "But it's time you learned your lesson."

"Fine, bring it," Nightwing was slightly dazed as he got off the ground. "I can take you. You'll find that I'm not nearly as weak as I once was."

Batman leapt forward with frightening speed and Nightwing could barely dodge aside from the vicious strike, but it was only a feint. The dark knight spun around as quickly as he had leapt forward and struck his opponent in the back of the knee, sending him to the ground again.

"That was your other problem. Pride. You were always too cocky, too overconfident in your own abilities."

"Like... you weren't." Nightwing was panting slightly, but otherwise seemed okay as he got up again. This time, he made the first move and ran straight forward, but then ducked aside as Batman struck out at him. He looped around, trying to strike the back of Batman's knees but the dark knight was faster and kicked him straight in the face. Nightwing drew back, wiping the blood from his nose.

"That feint was horrible," Batman remarked curtly. "I thought I taught you better than that."

Nightwing's eyes narrowed. "Worked plenty of times for me."

"Maybe on an amateur. I'll bet that didn't work on Slade, did it?"

Nightwing gritted his teeth and attacked again, jumping this way and that, not committing too much to any single attack. And again, Batman was faster and managed to strike when his guard was down, shoving him against one of the rocks.

"Give it up," the dark knight growled and punched at Nightwing's face, but the masked hero shifted his head aside right before the fist landed. And then Batman's left fist came up and caught him on the cheek. A knee to his stomach, and an elbow to the face later, and he could barely see, dazed from the strength of Batman's blows.

"It's time you learned your lesson, Richard. I hate to have to do this, but you got way out of hand. And yes, this might be a way for me to take out my anger, but you have to admit you deserve it."

"I-" He was cut off as a kick struck him on the chest and sent him flying back again.

"You no longer have the right to talk," the dark knight grumbled at him and the beating began.

* * *

"You're awfully quiet," Jinx broke the silence that had pervaded the room for half an hour. Somehow, Raven had managed to spend all that time just _staring _at her, not even reading one of her books or meditating, but just staring into Jinx's pink eyes and at her rather catlike face. Like, who could just stare for that long at someone? Without talking, to top it all off. Evidently Raven could.

"You ruined the silence," Raven muttered, and her gaze broke away from Jinx's face.

Jinx huffed at her. "Well, what's the point in just staring at me for all that time? It's not like you were _transfixed by my beauty_, were you?" She said sarcastically, and earned a smirk from her dark friend.

"Maybe I was."

Jinx returned the smirk. "Does that mean you like me?"

Raven's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What it sounds like. Do. You. Like. Me? What else does it mean?"

"As in, like you, or _like _you?"

"Whichever one you want it to be."

"Well, I suppose we're friends," she said softly. "But don't get the wrong idea. We're just friends. I'm not the type to get into a relationship, especially not one with another girl-"

_Yes you are. _"Shut up," she growled to herself, and Jinx laughed softly at her.

"Demon problems?"

"Ugh, you have no idea, well... actually you probably do, but this is my problem."

"Awww Rae, c'mon, you gotta let me help you with your problems sometime."

"I said shut up!" Raven yelled out loud, rubbing her temples. "Sorry," she said more softly. "Not directed at you."

"You sound like a madman - er - woman."

"I guess I am," she muttered, and got up, pacing around. "But aren't we all a little bit insane?"

"Maybe, but not as crazy as you are."

"I guess so," Raven moved toward the kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove. Her gaze shifted back and she and Jinx looked at each other for what seemed to be an eternity. Eyes spoke a ton about a person, especially the way the skin around them crinkled - and the different shades of light that shone around the eyes highlighted dark bags, or perhaps a gleam in the irises, or perhaps accentuated the eyelashes. It was easy to see the dark lines on Raven's face, the gloomy shadows around her eyes, her half lidded eyelids, yet there was a twinkle to them as she looked at Jinx. A depressing person to the core, but she also seemed to be more comfortable, maybe a bit happier around her pink friend.

And of course, Jinx was basically a cat. Cat eyes, cat face, cat smirk, smooth face but also with a slight, haunting glimmer in her eyes that made it clear that she understood what suffering through life really was - she had been through quite a lot as well. Although, she wasn't exactly as forlorn as Raven was at heart; she tried to be an optimist, and when that didn't work out, well...

"My demon thinks I love you," Raven muttered. "But I think it's just as nuts as I am."

"Oh really? And why don't you love me?"

"I don't _love _you."

"What makes you say that."

Raven frowned. "What makes you think I love you? When have I ever indicated such a thing."

Jinx gave her a short laugh. "And when have you ever let someone touch you for so long, talked to you about your emotions, and just stare at you for half an hour? Last I checked, you pretty much shunned all the other Titans even though they were supposed to be your friends. So am I really just a friend to you?"

"Well obviously you care about me. And I guess I care about you."

"I don't think you get it, Rae. Maybe you just don't understand what love is. It's not just the feeling you get when you finally find someone bearable."

"Maybe. But to me, _everyone's _unbearable. Well, almost everyone."

"But then you can't say you love me if I'm only _bearable _to you."

"Maybe I don't love you."

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "Oh really."

"We're just friends."

The pink haired girl put her hands on her hips. "Raven-"

"Jinx," she replied smoothly. "Love's not as sweet as you think it is. Love is... bitter. Like my tea."

Jinx raised an eyebrow at her, amused, but confused as well. The fragrance of herbal tea filled the room and a moment later, Raven held out a cup of steaming liquid to the Titan. Jinx blinked at Raven a couple times, then smirked as she understood the gesture.

"Love is bitter like your tea, huh? Raven... you're so sweet-"

"Shut up and enjoy your tea," Raven growled at her.

Jinx laughed at her lightly and took a sip. "It's not as bitter as you think it is."

"Really? Well, try mine."

Jinx looked at her quizzically, but took a sip from Raven's cup and barely managed to keep a straight face. "That's strong."

"I've gotten used to it, I suppose." Raven drank a little herself. "As bitter as I am."

"Bitter about what?"

"... I don't know. Everything?"

"I know that feeling," Jinx said softly. "When you feel like the world's abandoned you."

Raven nodded. "But mostly the fact that I've given up on myself. I'm pathetic-"

"No you're not," Jinx retorted fiercely. "Why are you always so down on yourself? You haven't done _anything _wrong, girl."

"Except kill a bunch of innocent people? Attack my own teammates? Just the fact that I'm a demon..."

"Oh, so it's about this whole mess in Jump, isn't it? Well let me tell you something. You didn't cause any of this. Slade did. And Nightwing did."

"And my brothers," Raven remarked gloomily. "And me."

"Okay, so maybe you did destroy a bit of stuff and accidentally hurt a couple people. But that was only in self defense. It's not your fault."

"Then who's fault is it? Why are some of those police officers' wives sitting at home, waiting for their husbands to come back but only end up getting the dreaded phone call from the station that-" Raven shook her head, trying to rid herself of the feelings of grief and disbelief that were flowing into her head, no doubt from those people that she had just mentioned. "You don't get it. I'm an empath," she muttered. "I feel everything that they do. And know it's my fault..."

"Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but you didn't cause this. Your brothers, whatever they are, did most of the destroying around here, and Nightwing's hands aren't exactly clean either."

Raven sighed. "I guess. But I shouldn't have lost control like that. Not after... never mind."

"After what?'

"No, it's just that Batman tried to help me control myself and I just feel like I let him down."

"Eh," Jinx shrugged. "He didn't look very 'in control' the last time I saw him."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"He said he was going to teach Nightwing a lesson is all, but I felt like he was gonna kill him or somethin'."

"Jinx! We can't just let him do that! That would be horrible! We can't let Richard-"

"Yes we can," Jinx muttered angrily. "Rae, babe, he almost killed you. And he killed a bunch of police, and he's just been real loony nowadays, ya know? He's changed since you last saw him."

"But that doesn't mean we should just let Batman _kill _him-"

"You're not really going to defend him, are you? I mean, he shot you right here," Jinx poked Raven's sternum, and the violet haired girl winced; her wound still wasn't completely heal and even the light poke stung. "He almost killed you."

Raven thought she hated how scared Jinx sounded when she spoke like that. She didn't want to worry anyone else with her own problems or her being in danger. But here Jinx was, suffering along with her and because she had almost died.

"You're not the forgiving type either, Rae. I can tell that much about you."

Raven sighed. "I... don't really know what to think about Richard honestly. Back then, he was my best friend and the one who understood me best. I can't forget that either."

"Do friends shoot each other?" Jinx asked quietly.

"I guess not." Raven paused. "Although it's not like Batman's going to kill him either. I think."

"I dunno, he looked pretty scary..."

"He always does though."

Jinx laughed. "That's true. But what are we going to do when they get back? It's not like you and Rich are all buddy buddy..."

Raven raised her hood and sat on the couch. "We'll just have to see."

(A/N: Not really satisfied with this scene, maybe I'll revise it later if I feel motivated enough to.)

* * *

_Elsewhere_

A vast expanse of empty ice stretched out in every direction, seemingly endless, boundless, dwarfed in size only by the dark sky above it. Faint glimmers of light shone down from pinpricks of white within the darkness and a single globe of silvery luminescence glowed dimly, shining down upon an enormous, complex structure made of pure ice. A palace of crystallized water.

By human standards, it was an impossibly large structure, maybe several kilometers in diameter, and stretching maybe a kilometer into the sky at its highest point. And it was not merely some block of ice either - there were intricate designs on the exterior, arches, walkways, domes, various layers of roofs, and carvings of demonic figures on the ice. Within the building's many spires, movements of blue skinned, humanoid creatures could be seen - a variant of demon under a different jurisdiction than those ruled by Trigon. As opposed to the four eyed, red colored demons, these ones were in all blue and only had two eyes, dark navy colored hair, and pointed ears and teeth. And deep within the abode, there was a cavernous chamber with icy blue walls and a platform suspended in mid air by several cerulean colored chains that held it securely to the walls. The only light in the room streamed down from above, a void of pure white that descended down and illuminated the throne upon the platform, where a shadowy figure sat, the usual vast darkness about it dwindled down to a tiny scattering masking its body and face. And if one looked closely, the figure took a human shape within the crepuscular void, a clearly female one at that. The figure appeared to be sitting, thought it was hard to tell with all the black surrounding it, and it was so still that it might have been no more than a shadow cast by something above.

Even as some of the blue demons entered below, the figure did not stir at all.

"Lady?" The demon's voice sounded. "You have visitors."

The figure did not appear disturbed, though it frowned behind the mask of darkness. Who dared disturb her? Nobody would just come unannounced except for...

Several figures in black cloaks, as dark as the shadows surrounding her, hoods raised so that their faces could not be seen, entered the room. The scythes strapped to their backs were equally as black as their cloaks, signifying where they have come from.

"Lady." They greeted her in voices that sounded very hollow, like there was no substance to them at all. "You know what we are here for."

"Tell your master that it's not his business," she muttered back. Her own voice blurred and crackled, jumping between different pitches and tones so that it was hard to tell exactly what she was just by sound alone. Almost like she was a swarm of beings herself, instead of a single entity. "He should have no interest in Trigon's affairs anyway."

"Lord Trigon is one of the master's greatest supporters. We cannot have the girl running around free any longer. The business with her must be settled and Trigon freed. The master's patience is limited."

"And I said that he should stay out of it. Unless he wishes to cross me, he will not touch her. And neither will you."

"I shall tell him that that is your reply then. He will not be pleased, but he will let you do as you will for now," the cloaked figures bowed before the lady and disappeared.

The shadow gave off a noise of frustration and rose off of her throne.

_Time to go fetch her, otherwise he'll be angry with me. That wouldn't be good._ The dark figure disappeared into a portal and appeared outside of the ice palace, at the edge of the frozen domain. It gathered up its energy and opened a portal, revealing an image of Earth. Focusing further, the portal shifted to an image of the Titans' Tower, then onto Raven. The figure decided that she would just observe the girl for now, since she could not pass through the portal anyway. Always had to wait for the right time to strike.

* * *

Batman watched as the sun finally rose above the horizon and began casting its warming rays over the land. But unfortunately, the batglare was too much for even the sun to handle, and it decided to hide behind a cloud to avoid the intensity of Batman's stare at it. A moment later, it began to drizzle, and a moment after that, Nightwing groaned.

"Awake?" Batman grumbled at him.

The Titan rubbed his head and sat up, patting his body to check for wounds. He frowned as he found a whole bunch of bandages around his chest and limbs. "You beat me half to death then decide to take care of me. What the hell? I thought you were going to kill me."

"Self control, Richard. Learn it."

Nightwing sighed. "I know I was wrong, okay?"

"So don't let it happen again."

"I... Words cannot express how sorry I am," Richard got on his hands and knees and touched his head to the ground. "I know you don't believe me, but I do feel bad about losing control of my anger. I won't make any excuses."

"I already forgave you Richard. I'm not the one who you should be apologizing to. But I wanted to make sure you knew your place. And to curb your pride, because I know from experience how being overconfident can ruin everything."

"I understand. But Raven won't forgive me as easily as you did."

Batman raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know that I was the forgiving type."

"No, but you're like family to me. Raven... we grew apart long ago."

"You don't know until you try."

"Bruce, I know. Raven will be out for my blood. Trust me."

Batman's eyes narrowed. "That was another one of your problems. You always gave up too easily. You never even bother to try. Always keep fighting until the very end. I believe I taught you that as well."

"Yes, but..." Richard cut off as he got a glare from Batman. "I suppose you're right. Change of heart."

"We're heroes, Richard. We're not just vigilantes. Because we don't exactly abide by the letter of the law, we have to show that we are people who stick unwavering to justice, morals, and virtue. The instant we waver from our convictions, we're no better than the criminals we hunt. That's why we don't kill. We do not have the right to judge the villain's punishment for his crimes - that is left for society to determine."

Nightwing nodded. "I remember you saying that when I asked you why you never killed the Joker. You could've saved so many lives if you just got rid of him."

"If society wanted him dead, they would have done it themselves. I already operate outside the law. I wouldn't dare to go so far to have his blood on my hands."

"I guess I never really understood until now, after experiencing all this firsthand. But that brings me back to Raven. She doesn't exactly fall under your definition of a hero, does she?"

"No," Batman admitted, and looked at Nightwing critically. "You're afraid that she won't understand our whole 'what it means to be a hero thing' and won't forgive you."

"Yeah, well even if she can see that I've changed, she never really believed in the whole hero thing anyway. It won't matter to her if I've suddenly become the paragon of virtue by human standards."

"That's not it," Batman grumbled. "You're afraid that you've destroyed her faith in 'human standards' altogether. You're scared that she will think of humans as a whole as trash because of what you and everyone else has done to her."

"Maybe."

"You'll just have to find out, won't you?"

"I..." Nightwing paused and merely nodded. He then turned to the three cylinders containing the Titans. "And what about my friends?"

"The liquid is a powerful sedative. I would prefer to ease them out of unconsciousness rather than have them wake up suddenly. Right now I'm slowly diluting the solution to lessen its effects."

"Fine. Then I'm off to go see Raven. If I don't come back... well, you'll know what's happened," he smiled weakly. Batman did not return the smile, and he sighed, figuring that the dark knight was not in any mood for jokes. Setting off for the Tower, Nightwing could not help but feel a little scared at the wrath of the demoness who awaited him.

* * *

"Bruce!"

Batman looked up at the sound of the voice. "Barbara? What's wrong?" He looked at the screen in his car and was surprised to see her unmasked, but otherwise in her Batgirl costume. Tears were streaming down her face and she seemed to be standing in front of a dead body with her cape draped over its head.

"Bruce - Tim - I couldn't get there in time - they - oh Bruce, it was horrible..."

Batman's eyes widened. "You mean he's -"

Barbara rubbed her eyes, trying to shake away the tears. "Not just him. The League called and according to them, they got to Super girl, Flash's family, and even some of the Amazons too. And they haven't heard from GL in a while - "

"Who's 'they'?" Batman said darkly.

"Bruce, you can't possibly hope to go up against something that's capable of throwing the League for a loop by yourself..."

"Tell me."

"Bruce-"

"I just want to know."

Barbara looked at him with red rimmed eyes, wiping away her tears and adopting a more stern look. "Okay, but you have to promise me you're not going to do anything dangerous. I - we - already lost Tim. I couldn't bear the thought of losing you too."

Bruce Wayne tugged down his mask and looked at her with a pair of piercing, azure colored eyes. "I won't be reckless."

"What does that mean - oh, whatever. Nothing I say is going to stop you anyway," Batgirl looked down at the ground, defeated. "Fine. I did some research because these things have been giving us some trouble for some time, and this is what I turned up. They're demons, and judging by the whole four red eyes thing, they're minions of Trigon. Bruce, we're in over our heads. The whole League wouldn't be able to handle it if that guy managed to find a way here-"

"Barbara. I... I'll try to make it to Tim's funeral. When will it be?"

"I don't know yet. It's just... it's so hard to believe that Tim's gone." Barbara sighed and put on her mask. "Bruce, what's going on? Nothing like this has happened since Darkseid. Superman's holed up in Metropolis, still in shock that Kara's dead, I suppose, Wonder Woman's gone back to Themyscira for a while, and Flash, well... he's the only one who seems to be okay."

"He's Flash," Batman grumbled. "He tends to get over things pretty quickly. It's the others we should be worried about. If those demon things attacked once, they'll be certain to attack again. We have to be ready. And that includes you. Don't let it get to your head too much. Keep calm, we'll figure out something."

"They killed Tim!" Barbara practically wailed at him. "And you're telling me to shove that aside as if that was nothing and _keep calm? _How can you be so... heartless?"

Batman closed his eyes. "It just feels like what happened with Jason all over again." (For those of you who don't know, go look up Batman/Under the Red Hood, or go read the comics, or look up Jason Todd) "I just can't let myself feel it too much, or I know that it will overwhelm me. It's something I have to carry in my heart, just like all the other people and other times I have failed. But I can't let it get to my head, or I'll only end up failing more." He looked at Batgirl meaningfully. "Same to you, Barbara. I'm not saying you can't feel anything, but you can't go to pieces over it either, or we'll be in deep trouble."

The auburn haired girl sniffled a couple times. "I guess you're right. Sorry, I shouldn't have called you heartless."

"I'm not that sensitive," Batman muttered. "Anyway, you'll have to take care of Gotham by yourself for now. Alfred and your father can help you. Just remember not to take any unnecessary risks, okay?"

"Got it," she mumbled. "I- never mind. Just get back as soon as possible, okay?"

"Don't be scared. You'll be able to handle it. I know it."

"Thanks boss."

* * *

Nightwing took a deep breath and entered the Tower's common room tentatively, unsure of what he would find there. As the doors slid open, he saw Raven slumped over on the couch with her hood up, as if she were sleeping and Jinx sitting next to her, sipping a cup of tea. When he got closer, he was surprised to hear them chatting calmly, Raven's voice a monotone and Jinx's slightly more impassioned, though soft as well - he remembered that Raven didn't like loud noises - but Jinx's voice didn't seem to be soft only for that reason. There was a sense of intimacy about it that suggested something else.

"We're _just friends, _Jinx," he heard Raven say a bit forcefully, and saw the disappointment come over Jinx's eyes, but a fierce determination there as well. Raven's hood shifted slightly, indicating that she knew he was there, but it turned back after a moment - she was not going to openly acknowledge his presence.

He decided to try anyway. "Raven." No answer. "Raven, please... actually no, I'm not going to ask you to talk to me or answer any of my questions. But please, I'm begging you to listen to me."

There was still no answer, but he caught sight of Jinx's eyes narrowing at him. The cat-like glare was not helping his nervousness at all. And evidently, Raven could sense it as well, because she turned slightly again. He saw her mouth twitch.

"I know you can sense it, Raven. I'm not the same as I was before. I've _changed. _Please, give me a second chance."

"You almost killed her!" Jinx spoke angrily. "Tell me one good reason I shouldn't try to kill _you _right now."

"Since when did you care so much about Raven?" He looked at her quizzically.

"You wouldn't understand. You're too busy thinking about yourself to notice what other people are thinking."

"I know. I'm sorry. I've been an egocentric, overconfident fool for a long time. But that's different now."

"Isn't that what they all say. They screw up 'cause of their own pride and then come running back, begging for forgiveness. Well, I'm not buying it."

Raven turned away from him again.

"Please, I'm begging you. I screwed up badly, I know."

"If you knew that, you wouldn't be showing your ugly face here," Jinx got up off of the couch and walked over to him, putting a single finger on his chest and pushing him back. "Now leave. Raven obviously doesn't want to see you."

He saw her hood shift again, and this time he could see a bit more of her face. Her mouth curved downward into a frown, but not an angry one - she seemed sad. Well, okay, maybe a bit angry. "I don't think she wants me to leave."

_I don't. I know you've changed, Richard. But still, that doesn't mean I can easily forget what you've done. I... no, not to me. I can't forgive the fact that you killed all those innocent people who had nothing to do with us. And for a lot of others, you destroyed their faith in heroes. You showed them that we're no better than those criminals that we fight, that we're perfectly capable of killing when provoked, just like the supposed villains we fight off. Don't drag innocent people into our fight, Richard. I won't forgive you for it. _And secretly, Raven was pissed at him for trying to kill her too. She might have tried to commit suicide before because she thought of herself as worthless, or even a blight on mankind, but she didn't appreciate him "passing judgment" on her. Who was he to judge her? He didn't have the right to kill her. She hated the fact that he considered her dangerous just because she was who she was, a demon. Couldn't he see that _all _of them with superpowers were just as dangerous as she was? In fact, most of the time, she kept herself under control the best out of all of them and was the _least _destructive out of the heroes she knew. The nerve! He first tried shunning her, then imprisoning her, then finally killing her just because she had lost control a little.

Yeah, she had killed a few people. Did he think she was some cold hearted monster that didn't feel bad about it? She felt all of their pain, and the pain of _every single one _of the families of the people she had killed. And he had shoved that pain right in her face again when confronting her about it. What irked her even more was the fact that he had done exactly the same thing she had, and claimed that he was justified. What a hypocrite.

So no, she would not forgive him so easily. Raven turned away from him again.

"Raven, I need you. You're the only person who can understand. I know I lost control, but if you don't give me another chance I'll never recover."

"And why should we care?"

Raven didn't feel quite the same way that Jinx did. As much as she hated to admit it, she _did _understand. He had screwed up royally because he had been blind to his own hubris. And as Pride, she knew exactly what that sin meant and how it ruled the hearts of men. So yes, she did know why he had done what he had. But did that mean he was excusable? Or redeemable?

But she did care. Raven turned toward Jinx and sensed the other girl's emotions as well. Curious. Anger, because he had tried to take away someone she cared about, but... fear and jealousy?

Suddenly she understood. Jinx wasn't only afraid of losing Raven because of Nightwing's stupidity, she was also afraid of losing Raven _to _him. That would explain why she was trying to get him to leave.

"But there can't be anything between us. There just... can't. We _have _to only be friends," Raven said more to herself than Jinx, but the pink haired girl heard it.

Jinx turned to face her, surprised, and not a little hurt.

Honestly, Raven didn't quite understand why she felt that way herself. Was she scared that it would make her emotions spiral out of control? Or was she scared of rejection? Or was she scared that she would end up hurting the person she cared about the most? After all, the way she was right now, she really had nothing left to lose besides her own worthless life. If she got close to Jinx, then she would have the whole world to lose if the girl was harmed in any way. It already pained her enough to see the hurt look on Jinx's face, even though the girl had said nothing. But she could hear her thoughts.

_Why does she have to be this way? Why can't she just accept the fact that we love each other? And God, why, why is she so willing to accept **him **back and not my love?_ Ugh.

Raven could not help but smirk a little. She really did care quite a lot. And Nightwing? Well, he was dying to be accepted back into her good graces for whatever the reason. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? She was the weird one, trying to be accepted into society. He was the ideal hero, well once was, as Robin, the Boy Wonder, sidekick to the great Batman. Well, she could tell that he was truly repenting for what he had done. Of course, that didn't fix everything, but at least it was reasonable to assume that he wouldn't do anything crazy in the near future... was it?

"Raven," Jinx's pained expression was gone - she didn't really think that Raven would admit to loving her so easily, did she? - and instead, Jinx was looking at her critically, trying to figure out what the violet haired girl was thinking. She frowned. "I don't get you. You're not just going to forget what he's done to you and everyone else, but you want to help him at the same time. What's your deal?"

"Exonerating him at this point isn't going to happen, but we still shouldn't let him go to pieces. I'd love to say that we should help him because we need him to fight Slade and my brothers, and it would be beneficial for us to work together, but that's not it."

"Then what is it? You're not going to tell me that you're gonna 'help him find himself' out of respect for your past friendship, are you?"

"I don't know. What do you want me to say? That it's because I loved him?"

"You did, didn't you."

"Raven, you _loved _me?" Nightwing's eyes widened in shock.

Raven finally fully turned toward him and lowered her hood. The slight redness at the edges of her eyes and the furrow of her brow and the downward curve of her lips made it look like she was about to cry, but he knew that she wouldn't. She was too strong for that - she would hold it in and deal with it.

"Yes, I did," her voice was husky, laced with grief. "Do you know how hard it was when you and Star started dating? You never noticed, did you?"

"I... errr... no."

"You didn't notice when a girl - and of all girls, Raven - loved you?!" Jinx practically shrieked at him. "How self centered can you be?!"

"Well..."

"Jinx, stop it. That was over a long time ago. I almost went to pieces over it, but I pulled myself together like always and tried to ignore it-"

"Oh my god. You're never going to tell me that you never stopped loving him 'till now, are you?"

Raven nodded her head slowly. "Right up until the moment he shot me."

Nightwing slumped to the ground. _How could I have missed it? _

"I don't know. You tell me," Raven replied to his thought. Her voice was back to its normal monotone, the moment of emotion gone. "But I guess I should thank you for trying to kill me. Helped me get over that obsession."

_And you don't need to worry about competition, Jinx. _Whoa, where had that thought come from? She had a mental image of one of her emotions inside her head, one cloaked in a lavender colored cloak. Lust? No, that one had a deep violet colored one. A related emotion then, but not quite Friendship either, which had more of a bluish tint to it.

And then a different Raven came up, cloaked in a dusky tan color. That one she knew, that was Denial.

Jinx sighed. "Whatever. Forget it. Damn it all. Welcome back, Richard."

Nightwing merely nodded meekly.

* * *

4:00 am. Raven watched as the hours passed, the quiet darkness of the night infusing itself into her being. She felt most comfortable during the night, she supposed that was due to her demon heritage, even though night was the time that her demon acted up the most. Of course, she had learned to not sleep while it was dark because of her demon in the first place - every time she did, she would have horrible nightmares of torturing demons and being tortured alike, terrible gory images plaguing her for years upon years, eons of pain, even though it was only actually a couple hours... she would wake up sweating and shaking, telling herself it was only dreams, but she could never quite shake the feeling that it was very real, whether it had already happened or was to happen. So, she had simply stopped sleeping at night. Easy enough.

Except for right now. Raven sensed something in those dark shadows that was really unnerving, some sort of demonic presence within them that was totally unwelcome. Actually, it wasn't just her imagination. There really was something there.

"Show yourself," she called out. "Who are you?"

_You don't remember me? How sad. _

"You never told me who you were to begin with."

_True. Listen, Pride. I need to meet with you to discuss something of vital importance. It is crucial that I see you as soon as possible. _

"One. My name's Raven. Two. How am I supposed to trust you? You still haven't told me who you are."

_Ah yes. You see, I shall tell you in person. It will be easier that way. As for trust, you must realize that I can take you by force if I need to. I merely thought it would be polite to ask._

Raven frowned at the darkness. "And what about my friends?"

_What friends? The girl with the pink hair?__ She can come if she must. It will not be as safe for her as it is for you, however. _

"Uh, that's fine. She can stay here. I just want to know how long I'll be gone so she doesn't worry."

_A day, no more. Not for now, at least. _

Raven sighed. "I really have to do this, don't I."

_It is not as if you have anything better to do. Your human heroes lack the power to fight Trigon's forces, let alone what else waits in store for you._

"Something else worse than my father?" Raven's eyes widened in shock.

_I said it was imperative that we meet. Now, if you do not mind, leave a note for your friend if you must, and I shall open a portal for you. _

Raven took a deep breath and pulled on her cloak, stepping into the darkness surrounding her. The cold embrace of the crepuscular void consumed her and after a moment, she was gone.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so this chapter's quality might be a little lower than the others, but since I've been neglecting to update 'cause of tests, I decided to write this all today and get it out because why not.

Anyway... Lots of stuff coming up, I'll be updating faster now since I have more time.


	10. Wings of Ice

Disclaimer: Don't own DC Comics or TT

Not much to say. Writing 8k words in one day and 6k the next... I guess I happen to be more motivated to write than usual. Anyway, a slight bit of a shorter chapter, but an important one with a pretty big revelation. No spoilers though, so read to find out.

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

One tiny flutter. Then another. A stronger pulse. And finally, the rhythmic throbbing settled into a regular beat. The darkness began to lighten, and from the center, a bit of light could be seen. Then flashes of light, and then...

She blinked a couple times. "Friend Nightwing?"

"You're safe now, Star. Take it easy and rest." He disappeared from her vision, but she did not have the strength to turn her head and look at him. Her eyes closed again.

A moment later, Cyborg could be heard grumbling, and beside him, Terra greeting Beast Boy, who had returned from the hospital as soon as he had recovered from his wounds. Nightwing looked at his green friend and waved for him to come over.

"We should let them rest for now. Come on, let's get out of here and make some food or something so they'll be able to regain their strength when they wake up."

"Yeah," Beast Boy said, looking a little reluctant to leave Terra so soon after he had found out that she was not dead, but he knew not to bother her while she was exhausted.

As they left the Tower's infirmary, Nightwing paused for a moment.

"Something wrong?"

"No, go on ahead. I need to check on something."

"Okay. I'll be sleeping. Just knock on my door if you need anything."

Nightwing nodded and as soon as Beast Boy was out of sight, he turned around, eyes searching carefully in the darkness for someone he knew was there. And after a moment, he could make out Batman's dark shape.

"Bruce, I'm sorry about Tim," he said softly. "He was like a younger brother to me. He was my family too."

"Enough sappy talk," Batman grumbled at him. "I need to know if you will be okay here alone. I have to go back to Gotham. League's a mess right now, with a bunch of members suddenly killed or missing. Even GL's been gone for too long."

"I should be fine. We don't need League help here-"

"That's not what I'm talking about."

Nightwing sighed. "I'll try, Bruce."

"You'll try?" Batman repeated at him.

"Fine. I'll do better than just trying. I'll keep control of myself with every fiber of my being. I promise I will be fine."

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear." Batman paused. "But like it or not, the League may come here eventually. How soon, I don't know."

"Root of the problem, origin of the demons, yeah, yeah. I know Jump appears to be where those things spawned, but I can handle it. I've got some powerful allies with me."

"I don't know if you can still call them allies, but they'll probably help you," Batman muttered. "Anyway, I'll call back in a few days to check up on you guys. For now, do your best to make peace with the girls." The dark knight disappeared into the shadows and was gone.

* * *

Jinx was in a bad mood. No, a foul mood. Violently temperamental, at least for the moment. She glared at Beast Boy as he passed her and he scuttled away as far as he could, not wanting to piss off the pink haired girl further. She had been known to have a bad temper at times.

What made her angry wasn't the fact that Raven didn't answer the door to her room when she had knocked. Jinx really couldn't blame her for that since she hadn't even been there. No, it was the note left on her bed that really irked her. Raven said she had gone somewhere dangerous and wasn't sure if she was coming back, and also said that she would have taken Jinx along with her had the trip not been so perilous, yada yada yada, stuff about being concerned for Jinx's safety, etc.

Who did she think she was? Some demon goddess? Okay, she was half demon goddess. But still, who did she think she was?! _I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself! I'm not weak! Why didn't you take me with you? _Jinx hissed and stomped her foot on the ground before turning and glaring at Nightwing, who had stopped to stare at her curiously.

"What?" She snapped at him and continued down the hall.

_And why are you never considered for your __**own **safety? If it would be dangerous for me, it's gotta be dangerous for you too! Do you like, not care about yourself at all? You gotta stop sacrificing yourself just to help everyone else, Rae. You've always been like that. Putting everyone else's safety above your own. _

Raven made her so angry at times, but Jinx thought that the girl's concern showed that she really did care, and maybe that she really did love her. It was irritating, yes, but it was also one of the few signs of possible affection that Raven showed for the pink haired girl, being worried that is. Jinx smiled a little. And then frowned again, eyes narrowing. Still didn't make her forget the fact that Raven was off Godknewwhere, somewhere that could easily get her killed, no doubt, alone, without anyone to watch her back. Because of her own deluded sense that she had to undertake the most hazardous tasks and not put anyone else in danger, to help people that evidently didn't even care about her and even wanted her dead. Raven was nuts.

And then there was her whole ice queen act. Oh, we're just friends. Right. They were _just friends. I mean, she can't possibly think I haven't noticed it. _Raven was simply so much more relaxed when around Jinx, while talking to her... although Jinx still did sense some discomfort from her violet haired friend when they came into physical contact - that was by force of habit, she supposed. But it also wasn't like she hadn't noticed the fact that Raven had to forcibly suppress her emotions more, the happiness, depression, everything, while talking with her. It was actually quite a pleasing to her to watch Raven try not to smile or laugh, and those rare times when she actually had smiled - maybe only once or twice so far - Jinx thought it had been the most beautiful thing ever. So, why did she still insist on being miss hard-to-get, doom-and-gloom, suicidal I hate the myself and can't get close to you girl? And she _swore _she could hear Raven's monotone in her head -

_We're just friends, Jinx. Nothing more. _

And it was horrible because she thought that Raven's voice was awesome too. Just the sound of it was wonderful, no matter what she said.

"Ugh, this is so dumb," she banged her head against the wall and closed her eyes. Jinx slumped to the ground and held her knees between her arms, burying her head in her thighs. "Why do you have to be so difficult?" She murmured.

_Because, _she could hear Raven's voice in her head, well, at least she imagined what Raven would say, _because life's not meant to be easy, is it?_

"No, it's not," she agreed. Sighing to herself, she got up and walked a few steps before stopping in front of the door to the Tower's guest room, where she had been staying. Then she changed her mind and walked back down the hall to Raven's room. Taking a deep breath, she walked in and took in the surroundings - everything was dark - before laying down upon the soft bed. Her dreams were plagued by thoughts of a certain violet haired girl.

* * *

Because she had traveled so often through her own dimensional portals, Raven had thought that she would have gotten used to the chilling sensation that one always got after being in other dimensions. Well, either she hadn't really gotten used to it, or this portal was a lot colder than her own, 'cause she was practically freezing to death. Raven shivered and drew her cloak about her. Normally, as a demon, she was generally resilient to extreme heat or cold (at least by Earthly measures), but this was too much, even for her. It must have been at least -60 degrees and she was only wearing a goddamn leotard underneath her cloak. And when she finally emerged from the portal, it was no better - if anything, it was even colder. Raven looked up from within the confines of her hood, uncertain of what she would find.

An icy landscape spread out in front of her, an endless sheet of translucent cerulean, a flat plain broken only occasionally by hills or mountains, like the one she was standing on. And in front of her, a vast, shadowy being... well, the being itself didn't seem so large. It was as tall as she was, and from what she could tell, it was not a particularly bulky figure either. A woman, just like her. Only, the shadows swirling around the creature took up an enormous space and blanketed the ice, her own body, and even the air in a veil of darkness.

Raven shivered again, but not because of the cold.

"Perhaps we should be going," the voice was unsettling, like a collage of many voices strung together, many tones and pitches speaking all at the same time.

The violet haired girl nodded and found herself instantly transported to just outside of an enormous structure made completely of frozen water. "My dwelling," the shadowy creature murmured, and teleported them both once again to a room inside of it.

A café by the looks of it, though everything was made completely of ice, from the walls, to the tables, and even the silverware. Well, iceware. The only things that weren't were the blue skinned, humanoid creatures around her that she recognized as a different form of demon, and the food that some of them were consuming. A few of the demons looked up as the shadowy being and Raven appeared in the doorway, but most of them were used to that sight already and did not bother to stare for long. The creature went straight up to the counter upon entering and motioned for Raven to follow.

"Something for her, so that she might not freeze to death."

"Yes, my lady." The demon bowed before her and brought out a cup of steaming liquid after a moment.

"Drink," the shadowy being said gently, and held the cup to Raven's lips with a tendril of darkness.

The violet haired girl looked at it suspiciously, but detecting nothing wrong with it, took a sip. Her eyes trembled slightly as heat spread through her, warming her nearly frozen body, restoring feeling to her numbed limbs. Another few sips and she felt rejuvenated; although the cold was still there, she felt like she could handle it.

"Better?"

"Much."

"Good. Then come with me."

They disappeared again and reappeared in what seemed to be a miniature warehouse, with many dresses and all manner of clothing hung on rings of ice throughout the room. And everything was in shades of blue, some sparkling with what appeared to be diamonds, others in Raven's favorite color of a near black navy (well, actually, her favorite color was pink, but besides that, it was navy).

"You may pick a few if it pleases you to do so."

Raven raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, looking at several different dresses of different lengths, some with long sleeves, others that would have only been supported by a pair of thin straps, and others with high collars. Never one for being _too _fancy, Raven stopped in front of a plain dress with a few ruffles in the skirt portion, one that would have reached the floor if she wore it, with sleeves long enough to extend slightly past her hands, and a v-neck that would have shown a slight bit of her pale skin. And though there didn't seem to be any jewels in it, the dress sparkled from many places. And it was a very pale greyish blue-violet, one that would complement her skin tone and hair.

"Just this one," Raven replied.

She gave off a noise of surprise as she suddenly found herself in the dress, with her leotard and cloak cast onto the floor.

"I cast a spell on it to ward off the cold of my world so that you might be able to travel here freely."

"Thank you? But this isn't what you brought me here for, is it?"

"No, it is not. I have made you wait long enough."

The shadows slowly began to fade and one by one, dark crystals dropped out of the air like a black rain of ice, shattering as they hit the ground. Well, Raven' couldn't say that she was surprised. High, angular cheekbones, a narrow, almost gaunt face, pointed chin, dark, indigo colored hair, fine brows pointed downward giving her a fierce look, eyes mere glimmers of azure light within the shadows beneath her brow ridge... she was so obviously a demon, but she had an air of an aristocrat about her, cool, almost untouchable, so much unlike her father. She wore a dress that sparkled with jewels and sequins, made of a nearly translucent cloth that blended in with the pale sky blue skin. Her long silky hair came down about her shoulders and when she let it down, curtained her face in shadows. Raven was stunned at her beauty and the grace of her movements; she was like some ultra classy lady.

A small smirk crossed the dark, navy colored lips. "Surprised?"

"A little," Raven admitted. "I didn't think you'd be so different from Trigon."

"And also more powerful than him," she spoke smoothly, and Raven could tell that she wasn't trying to brag or anything, it was merely a fact. "I am Lilith, queen of the 8th circle of Hell."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "I thought my father came from the 8th circle."

"He did. He served me once, but eventually left to take control of his own domain. Here, why don't we sit. I have many things to tell you, about your father and... others."

* * *

"Seems like he got the better of you," Envy smirked at a man with an orange and black mask, who was pacing back and forth in front of his destroyed computer. "Jealous that he's better than you?"

"Shut up!" Slade slammed his hand against a wall, prompting Envy's smirk to grow.

"You're so easy to anger. For a human, you're fun to play with."

Slade growled at him but controlled himself. "Last I checked, him 'getting the better of me' goes against your plans too. Now we don't have any hostages."

"Big Brother still has the green man," Sloth said slowly, yawning.

"That's the next thing I want to talk to you about. Why haven't you killed him yet? You know how dangerous he can be! Your mind games won't work on him forever. And he has enough power to defeat all six of you in physical combat."

"Perhaps," Greed said. "But perhaps not. Who is to say who will be the victor? We managed to defeat our sister, and we have only gotten stronger since that time. His power, however, is mostly fixed."

"He is also stronger than Raven is. And the League will be out looking for him too. Draw them here and you are most definitely doomed. As a whole, they are unstoppable."

"Our father can defeat them all by himself," Envy retorted.

"Yeah, and he's too busy getting imprisoned by his own daughter to do that," Slade shot back.

"Why you miserable-"

"Envy, calm yourself," Greed muttered. He turned toward Slade. "Listen, human, it is our brother's decision to do what he will with the Green one. He must have some sort of plan. You need not worry."

"I don't trust his judgment, and you shouldn't be too confident in him either. He is not infallible."

"He is the most infallible out of all of us," Envy replied. "We will defer to him for now."

"Brother is also the strongest of us," Sloth muttered. "Even if he disobeys father we must follow him."

"Fine fine fine, do what you will," Slade replied. "I'm going to have a little chat with Nightwing. Don't interfere."

"Don't worry, we won't touch your little boy toy," Lust spoke from the doorway as he walked in. "But you will leave GL and Raven to us. Understood?"

Slade grumbled something under his breath but otherwise ignored the demon.

* * *

(This section might be a bit dry and doesn't contain much character development, but it's got a lot of important information, a lot of which is of my own creation and isn't from the DCverse, so please bear with me.)

There were a pair of plushy beanie bag type things in the room filled with all the clothes - probably the only furnishings in the whole place not made out of ice - and Raven sat on one of them, sinking into it until she was almost swallowed completely by it. The demon queen beside her gave a soft laugh and sat on the other one, not sinking nearly as far. Raven grumbled a little as she emerged, feeling quite uncouth and lowly before the other woman... although she really didn't know why she kept thinking of it. Like, she was the daughter of a demon lord. Wasn't she supposed to be an aristocrat too?

"Not quite," Lilith replied to her unspoken question. "That's the first thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"My father?"

"Well, sort of. But about demon nobles in general. As you might know, there are nine circles to hell, each one ruled by a noble. In some cases, that ruler might have been born into the demon aristocracy, in others, it might have been one from the lower classes gaining power, or it might have been one born of something else altogether. Your father happened to be one born of the malevolent feelings of the people of Azarath. So he was not quite a demon noble to begin with. That is the difference you are sensing with me, one of the natural highborn."

"Wait... but that doesn't mean all of the demon gentility is stronger than him, does it? Because that would be..."

"No, they are not," Lilith assured her, knowing the girl would be worried about the sheer amount of power that the demon world held. "By my count, he is fourth strongest among us. Quite a high ranking for someone not of the nobility."

"And you are the most powerful?"

"No, I am only second. You see, the ninth circle has always belonged to the king, or queen, of all demons and is always the strongest one. The only way to usurp his - usually it is a male - power is to defeat him in one on one combat. The newest one happens to be particularly powerful, one that I could not manage to beat. I'm lucky he spared my life, to be honest."

Somehow, Raven could not imagine the demon queen being so much as harmed in any way - she just seemed that untouchable, that powerful...

"Which brings me to my next point." Lilith put on a very serious face. "He means to invade _all _other dimensions and conquer them, and yours is not far down the list."

Raven's eyes widened. "But-" she tried to speak, but she found that no words would come out.

"Calm down," Lilith reassured her. "There is still some time before he can do such a thing, and there is also something else of vital importance to him before he can even set foot in your world. You see, all demon nobles and the rulers of the nine circles are usually bound within the dimension of hell. We cannot leave, even if we want to, because there is usually no portal stable enough to contain the amount of power we hold while we travel between dimensions. It takes a special link, usually by blood, like in your case, or something else to allow passage. Before that link can be created, you will only have to deal with the lesser demons. And in that time, we are going to gather allies and try to beat him."

Raven's eyes did not look any less shocked, but she at least could speak again. "Why are you trying to usurp his power? Why not just follow him? You're not going to tell me it's because of your own ego, is it? You're not that type, I can sense it."

Lilith frowned a little. The girl was stronger than she had thought - her empathic abilities even worked on the likes of a demon goddess, who had passively shielded herself against the magics of others. She strengthened her barriers and felt the girl's link into her mind weaken. Raven smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to - I just happened to sense it-"

"It matters not," the demon queen waved at her dismissively. "Now, pay attention. You should realize by now that among the demon rulers, there is generally very little agreement, and we are prone to fighting one another. It is in our nature."

Raven nodded. That made sense, especially when she thought about her father.

"So, you should also realize that not all of us like this 'king'. Now usually, the demon king knows better than to overstep the bounds of his own power, but this one knows no limitations. He has been taking control of other circles of hell, which is usually something we do not allow, but this one is strong enough that the other lords dare not oppose him. His following is great already - he has conquered four of the eight other circles, including your father's, which lies under his jurisdiction. However, I am sure that some of those conquered lords are not too pleased with him and would be happy to aid an organized fight against him."

"He sounds like a warmonger," Raven muttered.

"Indeed."

"Well, then my father's certain to like him. He won't help you."

"No, he would not," Lilith agreed. "The others, well maybe. But there is one problem. The king knows that I am the one most likely to oppose him, so he is keeping a close watch on all of the lesser demons under my control."

"So that's where I come in," Raven murmured. "I'm going to be your messenger to those other demon lords."

"Yes-"

"I think you're nuts."

"Pride, I could think of nobody better-"

"I'm just a weak _human, _Lady-"

"My name is Lilith."

"Lady Lilith. I'm just a weak human. There's no way-"

"You managed to defeat your father, a full blown demon lord."

"Okay, fine. But there's got to be someone better suited to this than I am. Someone from one of the other dimensions..."

"How many daughters of demon lords am I going to find?"

"I don't know. One? Two?"

"Absolutely none. It is very difficult for a demon and any ordinary mortal to procreate a child, let alone a demon lord and a human. You are quite unique. And that is why the king has been looking to conscript you into his army as well."

"He _what?" _

"Be happy that I got to you first. You would not much like to fight for someone your father worships."

"No, I would not. But if he's watching for me, then that's an even better reason for me not to be running around organizing a revolt against him-"

"I said he merely wanted to conscript you. He does not perceive you as a threat as he does me."

Raven sighed. "Isn't there some other way I can save my world?"

"I am sorry. It is much to ask of you, I understand that. But I can think of no better way."

"But I'm so _weak. _I mean, pretty much every single one of the founding members of my world's Justice League is stronger than I am and-"

"And your father defeated them all easily when he turned them to stone, did he not? But why were you not affected?"

"Because... because..." Hold on. Did that mean that she was stronger than-

"Yes, it does." Lilith stood up and looked at her meaningfully with those deep, sparkling eyes. "You may not realize this yet, but your abilities rival those of any demon lord's, including my own."

"Okay. Whoa. Hold on there. I'm just a girl who sometimes has trouble fighting our world's supervillains. You guys are demon lords with power that's basically incomparable to anything from our world. There's no way-"

"You always hold back when you fight, do you not?"

Raven paused. "Well, yes. But I don't think that that would account for the huge difference in our powers..."

"It does not. But, you are still young and have not unlocked the majority of your strength because you have held back all your life. You see, Pride, when your father journeyed to your world and was vanquished, all of us demon nobles were in shock. We did not imagine that there was something strong enough to defeat him, even weakened as he was from the journey itself, in your entire dimension."

"Darkseid, all those new god people..."

"They would not even be able to scratch him. He, like most of us, is basically immune to all sorts of sorcery, while possessing immense magic of his own, strong enough to instantly destroy most mortals, immortals, and demonkind alike. The only reason your friends were able to battle him was because you lent them your own powers."

"Which came from him."

"Yes. Your father imbued you with a strength perhaps equal to a third, or perhaps even up to a half of his own. It was necessary to give you that amount of energy to open a portal that could safely transport him to your world. Then, you must remember that the monks of that dimension... what was its name?"

"Azarath."

"Ah yes. Azarath. The monks of that plane had considerable powers of their own. They gave you part of their strength as well. And finally there is your own latent power that you have not awakened. As a demon and even as a human, you must remember that you are an individual. You are not bound by your heritage or by your father's warmongering. You are yourself, Pride. His emotions do not rule you, nor do his powers either. You have your own strength that you must find."

Raven closed her eyes. It was a lot to take in. Demon king trying to take over hell, a bunch of dimensions, her world... being a messenger to other demon lords... the fact that she was actually just as strong as a _demon lord... _wow.

Outwardly, though, her face was smooth and impassive. Not even her mouth or eyes so much as twitched.

"For a human, your control is impressive," Lilith smiled a little. "I can sense your nervousness, but you show no sign of it."

Raven opened her eyes. "I guess it's just part of who I am." She paused. "You sure I have to be the one?"

"There can be no other."

The violet haired girl sighed. "Fine. I suppose I have no choice. But wouldn't it be better for me to like 'find my inner strength' before I start running around hell looking for people - demons - who can help us?"

Lilith frowned. "Yes, however, it will be difficult. To find your own strength, you must come to terms with your own demon first."

"Come to terms with it?"

"Make peace with it. Accept it as part of who you are."

Raven froze at that statement. There was just no way... She had spent what, twenty years fighting that thing off. Spending every ounce of her being trying to suppress it, destroy it. She had seen the destruction her demon had caused to those she cared about and the whole world. And now she was just supposed to accept it as who she was? No way...

"It will be difficult," Lilith's voice was soft.

"Impossible is more like it." Raven closed her eyes again and quietly gathered her thoughts together. She felt something calming the storming emotions inside of her and her doubts. She opened her eyes. "You're manipulating my feelings."

"You're sharp, aren't you."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "There's no way-"

"It is for your own good as well."

"I don't need you to tell me what's good for me-"

"Then think it over yourself. I will not interfere with your mind. Think hard about what you want, Pride, and either accept your demon, or stay the way you are in your current state. But make your decision quickly, for we do not have unlimited time."

"Don't tell me what to do- oh, you're giving me a choice."

"Surprised?"

"No... yes... well, it's just that everyone usually tells me what to do and I don't have a say in anything. Like with my father and stuff..."

"I understand. It will be your choice this time, Pride. I am simply urging you to make it quickly."

Raven gave her a small smile. "Thanks for being considerate." What kind of demon queen was _considerate _anyway?

"Not all of us disregard mortals as your father does. Now go. I will contact you again when the time is right."

"How are you going to know that - right. Demon queen. Super powerful." Raven smirked and got up. "I won't keep you waiting."

"I should hope not."

* * *

The batmobile's engines roared once as Batman shut them off and the roof opened over his head.

"Barbara," he said quietly, as he caught sight of the girl sitting in front of the giant computer, looking at him sadly. "I'm sorry. I should have been there."

She sighed and took off her mask, revealing her aquamarine eyes, which were watering slightly. "Why did it have to be Tim? It should have been me..."

"Don't say that." Batman walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure you did your best to save him."

"I could have sacrificed myself to get him out of there, but I was stupid. And selfish."

"Barbara..."

"Oh Bruce," her voice shook with grief and she hugged him tightly, burying her face into his chest. He held her close as well, but after a minute she broke away, wiping her eyes.

"Sorry," she said softly. "You told me to hold it back and forget about it, but I just couldn't. It was just too hard..."

"It's fine. Let it all out. Gotham's not going to blow up without us for one day."

Barbara turned toward the computer screen, where the Joker's face had suddenly come on, interrupting the daily newscast.

"Actually, it might," she said, laughing a little, sniffling at the same time. "Tim wouldn't have wanted me to neglect Gotham just because he was gone."

Batman frowned and looked at the screen critically, and after a moment, he already knew where the Joker was. "He's been getting easier and easier to deal with," the dark knight grumbled. "Why don't you sit this one out? I can take care of him myself."

"Sure-" Barbara's eyes widened. "Looks like you don't have to take care of it either."

"What?" Batman turned back to the screen, where the cameras showed a horde of flaming demons suddenly rising out of the ground, each of them with four red eyes. The Joker looked around and then turned back to the screen, grinning sheepishly.

"Uh, just kidding Batsy ol' boy. Catch you some other time," he scurried out of there as quickly as possible, leaving the flame creatures to wander around, unchecked. A moment later, one of them found the camera and the screen went black.

"I might need you for them, though."

"Um, Bruce, I'm not sure that even you can handle them-"

"I have to."

"Right." Barbara put her mask back on and clipped on a utility belt. "We're going then?"

Batman looked around for a moment before finding a pack of vials and throwing them in the batmobile as well. "Something to collect a sample of whatever these things are. We'll need to figure out their weaknesses if we want to fight them effectively."

"Always use your opponent's weaknesses to your advantage, be prepared, yeah, I remember your rules of fighting," she gave him a small smile as she jumped in the vehicle beside him. A moment later, they were off.

* * *

Raven reappeared in her room and breathed out a sigh of relief - the portal, despite her wearing the dress that shielded her from the cold, was still not altogether pleasant to travel through. She looked at the clock and finding that it was noon, she decided to do the thing that made the most sense - sleep.

And of course, she then turned to find a very displeased pink haired girl glaring at her.

"This is _my _room," Raven glared back at her. "What are you doing in here?"

Jinx held up the note that Raven had left for her. "And what do you think you're doing? If you're going to go somewhere dangerous, the least you could've done is take me with you!"

"I couldn't, okay? I couldn't put you in danger like that. I had no way of knowing if that thing was trying to kill me or use me or something, and bringing you might have dragged you into it too."

_"Kill you?! _Raven, you were willing to walk into a place where you easily could have died and you wanted me to stay out of it?!"

"Yeah? What about it?"

Jinx's jaw dropped. _Oh my God. This girl's nuts. _

"I heard that."

"Well you are."

"No I'm not."

"You _totally _are."

"Ugh," Raven threw her hands up in exasperation. "Will you just get out of my room? I don't want to deal with this right now. All I want is some sleep." She began to tug off her clothing before she remembered that she was wearing a dress instead of her normal cloak and leotard.

"And where'd you get that thing anyway?"

Raven glared at her. "From where I went, obviously."

"And where exactly did you go?"

"Now you're making me sound guilty of some crime or something."

"You are! You made me worry about you!"

"So you're returning the favor, huh? I was worried that I might get you killed if I brought you along."

"Whatever. Just tell me where you went."

"I - no. Just, please, stay out of it, Jinx. It's uh... family business."

"Rae-"

"Jinx, stop worrying about me. I'll be okay. Just let me handle this myself."

"There's no way I'm going to-"

"Jinx," she said more firmly. And then relented. "Ugh. Here, tell you what. If I happen to go there again, I'll tell you about it all when I come back. Okay?"

Jinx thought about it for a moment. "I'm not going to get an answer out of you no matter how hard I push, am I?"

Raven smirked. "No, you're not."

Jinx put her hands on her hips and glared at Raven. "Fine. But you have to promise."

"I promise," and then she looked at the rather distraught expression on Jinx's face. "Oh come on, don't be like that. Stop worrying about me."

The pink haired girl raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me that you're going somewhere where you could easily die, alone, without anyone to help you, probably against other demons, from what you told me about that whole family business, and you want me to not worry? I want you to be safe."

Raven put a hand to her chin and looked thoughtful for a moment. Yeah, that did seem a bit absurd, and she didn't really have a response to that.

So she did the only thing she could. Yawn and pretend to be falling asleep. Well, actually she _was _tired. Didn't need to pretend.

"Rae-"

"Nap time," she muttered in reply, and then arched an eyebrow as Jinx stayed put. "Want to leave my room?"

Jinx frowned at Raven's evading her question, but then decided to not push the issue, and smirked instead. "I'd rather stay here and watch you sleep."

Raven snickered a little at that comment. "That didn't sound creepy at all."

Jinx blushed a little. "Okay, that's not how I meant it-"

"You're _totally _a creeper-"

"I thought you were tired."

"I am."

"So shut up and go to sleep."

Raven sighed. "Nothing I say is going to make you go away, is it?"

"Nope."

"Fine. I don't have the energy to argue with you."

Jinx smiled and crawled into the bed with Raven.

"Creeper."

A cat like smirk in response, and Jinx closed her eyes as well. Even if she was still angry with her violet haired friend, she was just happy that she had gotten back safely.

* * *

A/N: Couple things...

One, in this story at least, demons do not have surnames.

Two, as I stated before, it'll be hard to manage all the OC, with the 9 demon lords and Raven's 6 brothers. I'll have to do a bit of character development with each one (though the main development is obviously centered around Raven/Jinx and Batman and Nightwing) as well as the rest of the Titans and JL, so this story might be a rather long one. Good thing I can write quickly when motivated to.

And three, I think I'm as oblivious as Raven is sometimes. I _just _realized how well the pairing Raven/Jinx works out. They've been in similar situations, but also Raven's favorite color is pink, they both hate having people come into their rooms, they both have bad tempers... yeah. I can't believe I didn't notice that earlier.

(Oh, and four, I didn't really want to make it obvious at the end, but Raven just felt comfortable enough to practically strip in front of Jinx - as in, everything but undergarments - and get into bed with her. So... make of that statement what you will, I refuse to be blamed for implying anything.)

Have some school work, so can't update tomorrow, we'll see how fast I can get the next chapter out.


	11. Interlude II

Disclaimer: TT/DC not mine

Thank you **discb **and **D3MI-D3M0N **for your continued support of this story. Nice to have people who actually look forward to my updates.

Now, onward to the story itself - this chapter along with the next few will be rather short in comparison to my others, but I will be updating very quickly, so hang tight.

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

_The Watchtower _

"Bruce, how's the situation in Gotham?" Superman looked at a screen that showed Batman working in the batcave, hunched over a DNA analysis device. The dark knight looked up.

"You look terrible."

Superman sighed, rubbing his eyes. The redness in his irises and the dark bags underneath showed how little sleep he had gotten during the past few days, presumably due to his grief over losing his cousin, Kara Zor-El. Actually, she was more like a little sister to him than anything, and the only other remaining member of his race. But more than that, she had been his family, and she had been taken away from him. Always among the more sentimental members of the League, Superman had not taken her loss well. The demons that had taken her away from him had not stood much of a chance against his wrath.

"Don't act so tough, Bruce. You must be grieving as well for the loss of Tim - "

"Diana. I'm fine."

"Bruce," Wonder Woman pleaded with him. "I lost many of my sisters as well. I know how much it hurts. Please, you have to let us help you-"

"I'm busy."

Diana huffed and sat back, although after a moment, the irritation on her face was replaced with an expression more downcast. She didn't like it when he acted like this, so aloof, emotionless, when she knew he was grieving alone. And he always hid it under a facade of working on a solution to whatever problems might present themselves, in this case, demons. She supposed it was a way of distracting himself from his own sorrow, or maybe a form of vengeance in itself, but it was still just a coping mechanism.

Batman looked at the screen with a grim look on his face. "I'll contact you when I find something useful." And with that, the screen went black and he was gone.

Wonder Woman sighed. "Well, I guess that's it then. We each have to fend for ourselves. With GL missing, we're already shorthanded..."

"It hasn't been too bad in Central City," Flash said rather cheerfully, given the gravity of the situation.

"Oh really? I heard that Kid Flash got himself killed trying to fight those demons - "

Flash's eyes narrowed. "Please don't talk about that."

Another coping mechanism. Trying to forget that anyone ever died.

"Please, please, let us not talk about our lost loved ones now," Martian Manhunter said. "I know too well the pain that you must all be going through. But we must not let it overcome us in these dangerous times. We must defeat our foes, and then we can grieve for those we have lost."

"Now you sound like good ol' Bats," Flash smirked at him. "Save the world first, be sad later."

"That's what we're here for," Superman replied. Despite his relatively gloomy demeanor, that was just who he was. The iconic superhero of the world, always putting society's safety before himself. "But we'll need some extra help, with GL missing. Anyone have any suggestions?"

The rest of the League founders looked at each other.

"Zatanna?" Flash said uncertainly.

The giant computer screen in the founders' meeting room suddenly turned on again, and Batman's face appeared on it. "No." And he disappeared again.

They looked at each other again. "Well, I guess that settles that. Anyone else in mind?"

"Jason Blood?"

"Etrigan? You must be out of your mind. He's a _demon _for God's sake."

"Yes, but Jason is a man, and he has a certain degree of control over his demon -"

"No, I agree with Diana," Superman interjected. "He's too dangerous. The man may be reliable but the demon is not. Someone else."

"Hawkgirl? She had something going on with GL, didn't she? Who better to sub in for him while he's missing?"

(A/N: Thought I'd say this, I finally got down to watching JL and JLU and I do like Hawkgirl's character. But since I've already introduced GL as Hal Jordan, I guess she's stuck with him and not John Stewart. And yes, she will be on the team with Superman and the others.)

"Weird logic, but good choice. It might work. Hal was talking about bringing her into the team, wasn't he? Why don't we give her a chance?"

Everyone shrugged. It wasn't like any of them had any ideas. It was common to defer to Superman on these issues, as there really weren't any alternatives. And they all knew, after fighting those demons, that they would need all the help they could get.

"Right, I'll take your silence as approval. Guess I'll go tell her then."

(And thus here is the awkward addition of Hawkgirl to the League founder roster!)

* * *

_The Batcave _

"Master Bruce - "

"Not now, Alfred."

"Yeah, Alfred, he's too busy brooding, cant you see that?" Barbara smirked at him.

"Yes, I'm well aware that Master Bruce is always brooding, but even he must take time away from his work to eat and sleep."

Barbara shrugged. "Well, you try getting him to budge, 'cause I've failed."

"Not now, Alfred." Batman spoke as his butler opened his mouth.

Alfred grumbled a little under his breath, but knew that once 'Master Bruce' had set his mind on something, there would be no stopping his obsession.

"And you, Miss Barbara? Might I interest you in some dinner?"

"Thanks Alfred, but I really should be staying with Bruce-"

"Go eat."

She turned grumpily to glare at Batman, who was slaving away, trying to analyze the remains of one of the demons they had captured. "If I have to eat, then why don't you?"

"Because, I'm Batman."

The auburn haired girl raised an eyebrow, and Batman smirked. "Sorry, couldn't resist."

She sighed at him. "Stubborn old man."

"Well, aren't you in a good mood..."

Batgirl smiled a little. "Actually, I felt much better after kicking those demons' butts. Made me feel really good."

"Good. Now go eat."

"But- uh..." she faltered under the terrifying gaze of the batglare. "Well, you should come eat too - fine. Be that way. See if I care when you starve to death."

Batman ignored her and went back to his work. Although it was not long before she returned with a plate of food in hand and set it beside him next to the computer screen.

"Thanks," he grumbled at her.

"Knew you'd eat if I brought you food," she smirked.

"You know me too well," he replied sarcastically, but not really sarcastically. She did know him pretty well, after all.

Underneath the mask, Bruce Wayne was really just a man, one hampered by human limitations, requiring food and sleep like any normal human, and when hit, could be injured as easily as any other man. And recovered as slowly as a human as well. And he had his emotions like any normal human; he was not just grumpy or unfeeling, but actually rather sentimental, caring... the only real emotion that he lacked was happiness. Real happiness. Sure, he had his moments of wry mirth, but the simple lack of optimism in him, or perhaps rather the very prevalent pessimism that had consumed him for years made certain that he would not truly be happy. Yet the other emotions he had.

And then he put the mask on and he was Batman. No longer a human, but a hero with superpowers on par with those possessed by Superman, Flash, or any of his other League comrades. Yes, simply by virtue of being Batman, he _always _won. Well, except for those rare occasions where he lost, but still won in the end because he was Batman.

Yep, that was his super power. Being Batman.

Well, okay, he actually didn't have any 'super powers' so to speak, yet there was one reason why Batman had been able to clean up Gotham more quickly than any of his counterparts in Metropolis or Central City, and that was simply by virtue of being more prepared. In a straight on fight against any of these supernatural beings, he would always have the disadvantage of being merely human, and so he always compensated by exploiting his opponents weaknesses and preparing plans beforehand. It was called being ready.

"You're brooding."

"Yes, I am."

"About what?"

Well, Bruce Wayne knew exactly why he had succeeded at being _the _Batman. Mortal, weak human fighting against all sorts of supernatural creatures of impossible strength compared to him, he should have been dead long ago, save for the fact that he had 'been ready' every time he fought them. That was why he had succeeded. It wasn't boasting, though he did let his pride cloud his judgment from time to time (Raven could give him a lesson on that too!), but a mere fact. That being said, he did have somewhat of his own ego, though not quite hubris, in the sense that he fancied himself superior to everyone else. It was more of an ego in the sense that he would do everything by himself and believed that he could, although he also had no qualms about using other people to achieve a final goal. A master manipulator as well.

And yet he was prudent enough to know when he was outmatched and required help; then, he was willing to shelve his ego of being able to do everything by himself in order to serve a greater good... survival.

Of course, a man shoving aside his pride was not an easy thing, and it was exactly why in times of crises like these, Batman felt most uncomfortable. Being forced to rely on others... it was not a pleasant thought to him. But he was a man who did what he had to do.

"Right. Never mind. Your mind is not a nice place to be."

"Glad I managed to teach you something after all."

Barbara crossed her arms and glared at him. Of course, _Batman _of all people was not going to be cowed, especially not by his own sidekick, and he met her glare with a much more intimidating one of his own. They stared at each other for a few moments. Then Batgirl looked away.

"I hate you."

"I still have to teach you to stare better apparently."

Batgirl sighed. "Shouldn't you be obsessing over your work rather than teasing me?"

"I should be," Batman replied, but did not remove his intense gaze from her face.

"Then why aren't you - "

"I already know how to beat these weak things," he gestured at the remains of one of the weird lava demon creatures they had been fighting. "It's a matter of how to defeat the stronger ones."

"Okay, and do you have any ideas?"

"The weaker demons are all susceptible to cold, as you might expect. No reason to expect that the other ones wouldn't be. But that's not enough."

Batgirl raised an eyebrow. "But you have another idea, don't you?"

"Call it a hunch rather than an idea."

"Well, lay it on me."

"You know Etrigan, right?"

"Yeah, that demon that Jason Blood controls?"

"Yes. Both he and Jason have an extensive knowledge of the functions of demonkind, though Etrigan tends not to like to divulge that information without a price, and Jason knows quite a bit less than him. But I did hear that there are many different types of demons, and the ones that we are fighting happen to tbe the one from the "inferno" circle of hell, where Trigon rules."

"And?"

"So obviously you'd expect them to be weak to cold. But from what he told me, he's suggesting that there are other circles of hell as well, with many different types of demons. If they were to come here as well, we wouldn't just be able to rely on one type of counter to them."

Batgirl's eyes narrowed. "Wait. So you're telling me that this army of demons that was able to take down so many League members and is giving us so much trouble... is only one of many?"

Batman nodded grimly. "How many, I don't know. But I do know this. If we want to survive, we need a one tactic counters all to combat these demons."

Batgirl shook her head in disbelief. "Even if that were true, how are you going to manage such a thing?"

The dark knight gestured to the screen behind him, where there was an image of a red skinned demon on it. Then, pressing a few buttons, he exposed the organs behind the skin, the muscular structure, skeletal structure, and finally settle on zooming in on the brain.

"You know that girl that Richard talked about?"

Batgirl nodded slowly. "What was her name... uh... Raven, wasn't it? I remember seeing her. She was kinda creepy, wasn't she? Almost like you."

"I'm creepy, huh."

"Well, yeah. I mean, even you have to admit it, Bruce."

"Sure," he held his hands up in surrender. "But that's beside the point. Raven was half demon."

Batgirl's eyes bugged out. "She was _what?_"

"Don't worry, she's proven to be trustworthy and she's helped many people in the past."

"But she's a demon! No wonder she was so creepy..."

Batman sighed. "You're missing the point. What I'm saying is, I took the opportunity to observe what demons, or at least half demons who possess many of the characteristics of demons, are like."

"And what did you find out?"

"Demon physiology seems to be the same as that of a human for the most part, at least among the humanoid ones. Their power doesn't stem from enhanced cellular density like Superman's nor does it come from their bodily systems. It comes from within their minds. Think about it."

Batgirl frowned and pondered for a moment. "So ideally you'd disrupt their mental processes, and then they'd be helpless. If you can keep them from focusing-"

"Yes," Batman turned to the screen behind him and brought up a chart of data. "I took the opportunity to run some tests on Raven. It seemed that this hypothesis was correct - whenever I placed her in some sort of environment that disrupted her concentration, the amount of energy she released dropped drastically. Simply put, if a demon can't focus, it can't fight."

"I can't believe you'd use her as a test subject like that! Did she even consent-"

"No. She also didn't know that I was using her as a test subject."

"Bruce!"

Batman frowned. "Who was the one who was just spouting off nonsense about how she was a demon and all that-"

"Okay, but she still has rights! You can't justuse people like that!"

Batman shrugged. "I'm sure she had some idea of what was going on. She's both a telepath and an empath - there's no way she had no idea at all."

Batgirl sighed. It was never any use arguing with Batman. He was just too stubborn to admit that he was wrong sometimes and it was also very difficult to win an argument against him because of the speed at which his mind worked. So, in the end, she gave up, and decided to just work with him on the newest assortment of devices that would help disrupt the mind's processes - things that emitted flashes of bright light, chemicals that disrupted nerve signals, and plenty of other gear that would fit into their utility belts. It might have been a bit far fetched to prepare so much in advance based only on Batman's hunch, but his hunches usually were pretty accurate; it was one of the things that made him such a great detective. Of course, _sometimes, _his instincts were also wrong as well.

* * *

_Titans' Tower _

"Alright everyone!" Cyborg slammed down a giant pot onto the kitchen table with a huge grin on his face. "To celebrate us finally getting away from Slade and being reunited, we're going to have my special, gourmet, triple meat sauce pasta!" He lifted the lid and a wondrous smell filled the room, and there were oohs and aahs all around... except from Beast Boy, who was looking very grumpy at the fact that Cyborg had intentionally forgotten the fact that he was a vegetarian. Terra, who was at his side, laughed softly at him and reassured him that Cyborg was only teasing him, but Beast Boy still looked grumpy nonetheless.

Beside her, Starfire was chatting with an unusually unresponsive Jinx, who seemed very distracted with something else -

"Friend Jinx?"

Jinx blinked a couple times. "Uh sorry. What were you saying?"

"I was just asking you why friend Nightwing is not on the good terms with the police- are you listening?"

"Yeah..." Her voice trailed off as the single word returned her to her own thoughts about a certain violet haired girl, whose presence at the table was sorely missed - at least by her - since she said she didn't really want to face all of Titans just yet. So she had stayed locked up in her room and was presumably sleeping or meditating.

And finally Nightwing, who seemed even more distracted than Jinx did. With good reason, of course. The other Titans were still unaware of his doings while they were being held captive by Slade. Killing police officers, innocent people, almost shooting Raven to death... he had actually considered telling them what he had done, since they probably were going to find out eventually, but Raven had actually talked him out of it. After he had proven that he had truly changed, and after he had earned back Jinx's trust, at least then could he tell the rest of them. At least then would they understand that his old arrogance and aloofness was a thing of the past.

Raven's reassurance that they would not hold it against him was actually quite comforting, which was weird considering the fact that comfort had never really been her thing. And really weird considering that she was supposed to hate him for trying to kill her.

Now, Nightwing wasn't exactly empathic the same way Raven was, but he had some powers of insight through pure observation. So he wasn't sure of it, but he thought that Raven still might love him, even just a little. Not enough to forgive him, but still enough that she would be uncharacteristically nice to him. It was weird how things worked out sometimes.

And why was it that he could only think about her now, even though he should have been celebrating the fact that the team was all together again? Though it was rather strange to think of her this way, there was something charismatic about her. No, Raven was not a natural born leader nor merely a follower or a soldier. She was usually a loner, with maybe only one other person to associate with - that would be Jinx, he suspected - anything _but _charismatic. Well, that was how he used to think of her. But lately, there had been something about her slightly different. Maybe it was the mark of someone being forced into a role she wasn't typically used to, but he felt like she was at the forefront of something big. Like she was leading the charge against their enemies, instead of him.

Well, he didn't know just yet how right he was, but he had a sense that Raven wasn't quite what she once was. Oh yes, she was still anti-social, moody, elusive, and all of the other things he had known her to be. But he felt like - and again, she might have been reluctantly doing it - the _emphasis _on fighting evil had shifted to her from him.

_Okay. Batman was right. I really am an egomaniac. Does it matter who's the one leading the battle against evil as long as the evil itself is vanquished? I shouldn't be jealous of her just because she's the one leading the charge and not me._

_But she's a demon. Can I really trust her? Or maybe she's actually working with the evil! Maybe she'll actually betray us at a critical point and - _

_Stop it! There's no way she would do something like that. You're just working with baseless assumptions. It's not even certain that anything's changed about her at all. She might be the same as she's always been. Maybe it'll be the same as it's always been. If we lead, she'll follow._

_Yeah right. Remember when she got back? There was something haunted in her eyes. Almost like she were staring into death's face - she was scared of something. Not just scared. Terrified, like she could see something we couldn't. _

_So? Maybe she was scared of me._

_Not a chance. You felt it too, didn't you? Through the bond. She was being forced to do something she didn't want to do, but had to do. _

_And? _

_And nothing. Just keep a close watch on her. _

Nightwing shook his head a couple times. _Okay, let's get a couple things straight. One, even if Raven has changed and she's the leader now, I'm fine with being a follower. You're not just because you want all the credit for yourself. You just want to feed your own ego. And two, I know her. She wouldn't betray us even if she was being forced to. She'd fight to the last breath. You're just too blind to see that because you only care about yourself.**  
**_

_You're saying she'd never betray us? Do you **really **think she cares about humans that much? After how much people, others and us, her family, have made her suffer, don't you think she's got a bit of a grudge against us? _

_That may be. But she still wouldn't abandon us if we were in trouble. Or, if not me, then humans in general. She'd still play the hero and try to save people, even if she doesn't believe in them. Because that's just the way she is._

_But she wouldn't save you-_

_Do I even deserve to be saved? _

Silence.

_Nightwing__? _

The masked hero looked up and found himself staring at a pair of violet eyes glowing in the darkness underneath an indigo colored hood.

_Raven? What are you doing inside my head? _

_You were thinking about me. I could feel it from up here. _

_Oh. How much did you hear? _

_All of it. Your doubts about me._

_Oh. Err..._

_It's fine. You were trying to fight it. I was just surprised that you had deduced so much just from your instincts._

_Comes from being around Batman for so many years. _He paused. _So I was right after all. You're being forced into-_

_Sort of. Maybe I'll tell you later._

_Why are you being so nice to me? _

Raven was silent. _I don't know. Maybe I just want to be friends again._

_Why? I almost killed you._

_Because. Because... I don't know. Maybe it's because we share this bond and it's something neither of us can break._

_And Jinx isn't good enough for you? _

Raven was silent again. _I don't want to talk about her, _Raven's thoughts reached Nightwing after a moment. _Maybe you'll understand once you find someone you... never mind. We're friends too. Just friends. _

A smirk touched Nightwing's lips. _Trust me, I understand. Did you happen to see Batgirl while you were in Gotham?_

_A couple times, but we never talked. Why?_

_We used to have something together, but after I left Batman, we lost touch. I still love her though, but I'd never be able to admit it to her face. Just like you. _

_I'm not in love with -_

_Okay, okay, you're not in love. But even if you're good friends with Jinx, just like Batgirl was my 'good friend', I still needed one other real friend too. Someone I could talk to and admit things to that I couldn't to my 'good friend'._

_And why's that?_

_I'm sure you understand. Sometimes you can't talk to the person you love because you're afraid for them. And you're afraid that they'll worry about you or you're worried that you'll ruin your relationship with her. _

_I'm not in love -_

_At least, _Nightwing droned on over the sound of her voice, _not until you feel comfortable enough to admit anything to her and know that both of you would be okay, and it wouldn't ruin anything. But until that time, you need a friend. I can be that friend-_

_I'm not in love, _Raven repeated stubbornly. _And we're not friends. I haven't forgiven you. _

_Then why are you talking to me? _

Raven was silent once again.

_Raven? _

"Nightwing... Earth to Nightwing," Jinx waved a hand in front of the masked hero's face. "You gonna eat or not?"

Nightwing came out of his conversation with Raven and looked at the pot of pasta in the middle of the table, then around at all the faces staring at him. "Right, sorry. I was thinking."

All the other Titans merely chuckled a little, knowing that Nightwing could sometimes be just as brooding as his mentor was, but Jinx was not fooled. Her eyes narrowed at him and she drew closer.

"You were talking to Raven, weren't you," she whispered to him once everyone else had gone back to their own conversations.

"Err-"

"You looked frustrated. I know that feeling."

Nightwing actually laughed a little at that statement. "You certainly have a right to be."

Jinx sighed. "So you _were _talking to her. Seems like she's forgiven you."

"She said she hadn't - "

"Please. You know as well as I do that she has. She just never admits any of her feelings."

"Well, that definitely seems to be true in your case."

"What are you suggesting...?"

Nightwing smiled. He wasn't going to just come out and say that he knew what was going on between Raven and Jinx, but he had certainly 'suggested' that he knew. And Jinx realized it too, judging by the annoyed look on her face.

"Richard," she said softly. "Stay out of it. I want to deal with her myself."

"Deal with her?"

"Wrong choice of words. But I want to be the one to get her to admit it. Don't help me."

"Lover's quarrel. Right."

Jinx's eyes widened a fraction. "Lovers?"

"What? That's what you are, aren't you?"

The pink haired girl actually smiled at that. "Well, I suppose we are... or, will be."

* * *

A/N: Not much to say... generally 'Interlude' chapters aren't very interesting or essential to the plot at all. They merely serve the purpose of smoothing out the plotline and being transitions between more important plot elements... and they include some character development. But...

Maybe sometime soon Raven will be able to admit that she loves Jinx. Hopefully.

Stay tuned!


	12. Apotheosis I

Disclaimer: Don't own DC/TT

In reply to **discb** and **guest**... Poor Raven is oblivious... and scared.

Now, onto stuff pertaining to this chapter... this chapter's only one scene long, and it's pretty short, but it's also pretty important. I might rewrite it later if I have time, since I'm not terribly satisfied with the way things turned out... (but since I basically never revise anything I write, that probably won't happen.) Well, I don't know. It might just be because I'm used to writing longer chapters that this one feels _too _short to me, but maybe it's okay. We'll see.

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

Nightwing woke with a start, sensing something calling out to him. He groaned, then turned to look at his clock. 3:30 AM. Sighing to himself, he sat up and wondered what had woke him up. Who would even be awake at this time? Probably only Raven, if he remembered her sleeping habits correctly. Maybe she needed something from him.

Groaning, he got up and shuffled over to the door to his room, almost tripping over his own pajama legs as he practically sleepwalked in the darkness. He opened the door and -

BAM! A powerful punch sent him flying back into the room and a man in a black and orange mask stepped forward.

Nightwing clutched his face and rolled aside to avoid the kick, and then the other direction to avoid the punch that followed. And then the masked man stepped back, apparently satisfied, and closed the door behind him.

"Nightwing. How good to see you again. Sane, whole, surrounded by your friends, happy once more."

"Happy? Far from it." Nightwing stood up and faced his adversary, whose outline he could barely make out in the darkness. Sensing a slight shift in the wind, he ducked under a kick, then blocked a elbow. And Slade was gone again.

"Happy or not, I intend to drive you insane."

"Like that will happen."

"I almost had you last time. This time, I've made sure that there will be no... interference."

"Even if Batman's gone, what makes you think you can take me?"

"True, your skill at fighting surpasses mine now," Slade said nonchalantly. He did know for sure that the younger man was definitely the stronger one when it came to pure combat, but there was always the matter of having a plan and being smarter. And in that regard, Nightwing still had a lot to learn. "But you never did realize why I was able to beat all five of you Titans for so long. Surely you don't think I could have fought all five of you head on, did you?"

"No..."

"So then, why _was _I able to defeat you all?"

"You didn't. You died to Terra."

Slade chuckled. "A minor setback. But I will admit that I made some mistakes. Like trusting other people. You understand, of course."

"I trust my friends."

"Do you?"

Nightwing glared at the outline of silhouette of the villain in the black void of his room. "What do you want?" He asked exasperatedly. "You know you can beat me in one on one combat. And I know you haven't kidnapped any of my friends or anything, or I would have heard them fighting you."

"True. But..." And suddenly, another figure stepped out from the darkness behind Nightwing and tendrils of red power restrained his limbs. "I brought a friend."

Nightwing gritted his teeth and turned his head as much as the magic restraining him would allow. Four red eyes gleamed out at him. "One of Raven's brothers," he hissed. "She told me all about you guys."

A toothy grin. "So which one am I?"

For a demon, he was pretty. "Lust," Nightwing said instantly.

"Very good," came the reply. "Want to see what I can do?"

"No thanks."

"Well, it's not up to you."

"Hold on," Slade murmured. "Before you kill him, we have to break his spirit."

Nightwing kept his face calm but inwardly, he began to panic a little. Fighting a demon alone was not going to be easy, let alone with Slade there. And he was also scared of what the demon was going to do with him - if there was anything he had learned about those creatures, it was that they were experts at playing mind games. And he definitely didn't want to be driven insane again.

"Too bad for you," the demon whispered. "People don't always get what they want."

"Neither do demons," an icy voice sounded from behind Lust, and the demon turned around just in time to get a face full of dark energy. He howled in pain and drew back, glaring at the shadow that had just appeared.

"Raven?"

A pair of violet eyes opened in the darkness. "The one and only." (A/N: Stole this line from Teen Titans Go! Not my line.)

"How'd you know I was in trouble?"

"I felt your panic through the bond. I thought you might be in trouble," a hint of worry showed through her voice.

"Well glad to know that you still care about me."

"... I don't. At least, not the way you're thinking of it."

"Sister - "

"Don't talk," she turned and glared at her brother. "Don't even try to do anything."

"Now, dear Raven," Slade began speaking. "It is impolite - "

"It is impolite to knock on someone's door then proceed to attack them," Raven hissed back at him before slamming him into the wall with her powers. "And it's also impolite to interrupt someone while she's speaking."

"Raven - "

"What, Nightwing?"

"I appreciate your concern, but I don't think it's necessary to be so violent - "

"Next thing you're going to tell me is these two were just here to have a nice chat with you. Maybe some coffee while they were at it."

"I'm not saying - "

"They might have killed you, Nightwing. They're not going to get away with threatening you like this."

"And you said you didn't care about me," the masked hero said with a smirk on his face.

"Not really," Raven replied coldly, and turned back to her demon brother.

And to her surprise, Lust's fierce eyes suddenly seemed more subdued. No longer wide open and fierce, they were half lidded, as if he were thinking about something.

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Lust?"

The demon shook his head a couple times like he was ridding himself of something and tensed up. "Release him," he grumbled.

"Why do you care about this trash?" Raven retorted, tightening her grip on the masked villain, who was now visibly starting to feel the pain of being crushed. "Wouldn't it just be easier if I got rid of him for you?"

"Wait Raven!" Nightwing suddenly sounded very panicked again. "You're not going to... kill him, are you?"

"Completely obliterate his body so my father can't raise him from the dead," the violet haired girl replied matter of factly. The dark grip on Slade's body tightened.

"Raven!" Nightwing grabbed her arm. She turned to look at him, her eyes glowing pure white under her hood. "You're not a murderer," he said quietly. "Don't do this."

She remained silent, but her arm had tensed up under his grip.

"Why don't you help me! You don't want him to die either, do you?" Nightwing shouted at Lust, who was also standing still in the darkness. He did not say anything either.

"God, are all demons like this?" He muttered to himself and released his grip on Raven. He noticed her relax slightly - she hated being touched.

"I'm doing this so you don't have to," she grumbled in a low voice. "Enough blood is on my hands. One more won't make a difference."

Nightwing facepalmed. "Look, Raven. I might have... said some things to you in the past that I didn't really mean. You're not a murderer and you don't have blood on your hands. You don't need to do this."

"Well, somebody's gotta do it. And enough with the sappy talk. You know it's not true."

"Fine! But what makes you think that you have to be the one to do this? Why can't I?! He's _my _worst enemy, not yours."

"Exactly why I should be the one to do it."

Her grip on Slade tightened, and the man's eye closed.

"Raven!" This time he tackled her to the floor and the dark energy disappeared. Slade gasped for breath as the force pressuring his lungs and throat was gone.

Raven turned a white glare to Nightwing before looking back at Slade, who had pulled out a gun and was pointing it at her. She couldn't help but laugh a little.

"What makes you think that will work on me?"

Slade was still for a moment. "You're right," he muttered. "Wrong target."

His hand shifted quickly and the bullet flew at Nightwing instead. Raven's eyes widened and without thinking, she moved in front of him and intercepted the bullet, which lodged itself in the bones of her right shoulder. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the pain, she raised her other arm and sent the villain flying back with a bolt of dark energy and pinned him to the floor.

"Raven!" Nightwing shouted worriedly.

"Is my name the only thing you can say?"

"Are you okay?"

"I've just been shot again, I can't use my right arm, and I think my shoulder's been fractured. And I have someone shouting into my ear. I'm okay."

"Why didn't you just use a shield? You could've easily just blocked it with your powers."

Raven frowned. "I... wasn't thinking. My body just moved. I guess I instinctively wanted to block it for you or something."

"Brother was right about you," Lust said from the darkness, eyes glowing faintly.

Raven's gaze turned onto the demon, who seemed unusually mellow. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?"

"Usually you'd be at my throat by now, trying to kill me or something."

"Indeed, that was what I would have done before. But something made me see that Wrath was right. We shouldn't be trying to force you to join us against your will."

"And what would that be?"

Lust folded his arms over his chest. "Maybe you'll understand once you stop denying your feelings. About him. And the pink girl."

"What are you - "

"Nothing. I won't bother you any more, sister," Lust turned to leave. And then he paused. "Do with _him _what you will," he practically spat out. "Human scum."

And with that, the demon was gone, leaving the pair of heroes with a very vulnerable Slade held tightly against the ground by Raven's powers.

"What was that all about?" Nightwing asked her, confused. "Why was he acting so weird? One moment he's trying to kill us, and the next, he lets you do whatever you want?"

A smirk touched Raven's lips. "He's my brother." She had sensed his emotions, she knew exactly why he hadn't attacked her and why he said he was going to stop pursuing her.

"That doesn't explain anything - "

"Why don't we take care of the business at hand first?"

Their gazes turned down to the masked villain. "You're awfully quiet."

"I-"

"What's this, Slade?" Nightwing walked over to the man and planted a foot down on his back. "No clever comeback? No threats? No secret weapon up your sleeve this time?"

"I-"

"You didn't expect to be betrayed again, did you? Weren't you the one who told me that I was too trusting? And now look at what's happened to you. You've been abandoned."

Slade tried to speak again, but Raven tightened her grip on him, cutting off the flow of air to his lungs. Slowly, slowly, she began to choke him to death, pressing him into the floor, crushing his chest until...

"Raven," Nightwing said quietly. "That's enough."

He sensed her disagreement.

"We don't need to go so far as to kill him. I just wanted to make him see that he was wrong... Raven, stop!"

"He needs to die," she replied icily.

"No, he doesn't," Nightwing said firmly and got up, putting a hand on her good shoulder. "You're hurt and I'm tired. We should just call the police and have him locked up, then take care of ourselves."

Raven gritted her teeth and ignored him, and Slade gave off a strangled noise as several of his ribs cracked.

"Raven!"

"No!"

Suddenly there was knocking at the door to Nightwing's room. "Nightwing! Is everything okay? We heard you shouting."

Nightwing exchanged a look with Raven, who seemed hellbent on killing Slade. "Sorry," he whispered to her. "No, we've got a problem! I need your help, now!" He shouted back to them after a moment.

Raven's eyes widened, and then, brows knitted together with rage, she increased the power of her energies strangling Slade and sent him clear through the floor, killing him instantly. Nightwing turned to her, shocked, and found her disappearing into a dark portal.

"Wait! - " But she was already gone.

And then Cyborg broke down the door and walked into Nightwing's room, Starfire, Beast Boy, Terra, and Jinx following behind him.

"Dude, what happened here?"

Nightwing gnashed his teeth together and stomped his foot on the ground. "Nothing. Go back to bed. We'll deal with this in the morning."

"Whoa, hold on there. One minute you're asking us for help, and the next minute you say nothing's wrong?" "Friend Nightwing, there is a huge hole in your floor, surely not everything is okay." "Is that a dead guy down there?" "There's blood on your floor!" "Are you hurt?" They all spoke at once.

"I said we'll deal with this later!" Nightwing shouted at them angrily. "For now, just go to bed!"

The Titans gave him strange looks but obeyed his will and left his room. Nightwing groaned and laid back on his bed. And then the enormity of what had just happened dawned on him. Slade was dead.

Well, yeah, he had died once before, but this time, there was nobody there to bring him back to life. He was dead for good this time. His worst enemy, the man who had tortured him for so many years, kidnapped his friends, almost driven him insane, caused him to almost kill Raven... he was gone.

But he didn't feel happy about it either. For some reason, an empty void had opened up inside his heart, like a piece of himself was missing. That part of him that had stayed up late so many nights, searching for Slade's next plan, the mastermind's next assault on Jump, the next way to mess with his mind... it was all done.

Then again, he wasn't exactly sad either. No more dealing with Slade. _That _thought was not unpleasant, but not as wonderful as he had thought it would be.

And though he didn't want to admit it, _he _wanted to be the one to kill the masked man. It wasn't even so much as sparing Raven the guilt or trouble of doing it - and he wasn't even angry at her for actually killing Slade, he knew he would have probably done it too, if Slade wasn't his archnemesis - but more about himself once again. Slade was _his _property, strange as that sounded, and he alone decided what should happen with the man because of the relationship they held. Just as Raven and Trigon were inexorably tied together, or Cyborg and Atlas, or Starfire and Blackfire, Beast Boy and Adonis, so were he and Slade. He wanted to be the one to determine the fate of the villain, but well, it was all gone and done.

_Damn it. _

He decided, in the end, to stop brooding and just go to sleep.

* * *

A/N: A little bit of exploration into Lust's character this chapter...

"Lust" and "Love" are inexorably linked, and at some point it becomes difficult to distinguish one from the other because they can really go hand in hand. So while the demon's name is Lust... you get the idea. So that's why Lust happens to be particularly susceptible to emotions like caring for friends or love, and that's what made him see that "caring" for his sister was not trying to hurt her ... (duh? But demons don't always have the best logic, it seems.)

Anyway...

Tell me if you think this chapter should be expanded upon, I'm not sure I portrayed any of their conflicting emotions enough.


	13. Convergence III

Disclaimer: TT/DC not mine

Another single scene chapter...

To clarify something before we get started, Nightwing, Beast Boy, and Jinx have not told the others that Raven has returned yet. This chapter will focus on their reactions to the fact that she's back, staying with them, and she's actually started sort of becoming friends with some of them again.

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

"Raven's here?! And you two didn't tell us?!" "She made a hole in your room?!" "She killed Slade?!" "She's friends with you again?!" "She's friends with Jinx?!" "She saved Beast Boy's life?"

"Okay guys, calm down. I mean, it's not that big of a deal is it? We were once teammates."

"Well she tried to kill us, in case you forgot."

"Yeah, I meant come on, Nightwing, I thought we already discussed this. She isn't welcome here anymore. And you were the one who wanted to brand her as a criminal, weren't you? Though I thought you were going a little far in doing that."

"I changed my mind."

"Yeah guys, she saved my life. And tried to save you from that acid stuff that Slade had. At least, that's what Nightwing told me."

"And she did get rid of Slade too."

"Okay, and that doesn't make her guiltless either," Terra replied. Everyone knew that Terra and Raven hadn't exactly liked each other in the past, so it was no surprise that Terra would be against her.

"No, it doesn't. But it doesn't mean we can't give her a second chance."

"We already gave her a second chance."

"But she's changed for real this time. You guys wouldn't know because you were stuck in those weird tank things that Slade had, but she's back to normal again."

"Normal? Last I checked, normal for her was going all demonic rage and trying to kill everything in sight. BB, that ain't 'normal' to us."

"Well you know what I mean. She's not like that any more."

"Look," Nightwing interrupted them. "I'm not asking you to work with her, accept her back into the team, or anything like that. All I want is for you guys to let her stay here in the Tower. I'll be the one to deal with her if anything happens. Okay?"

Cyborg shrugged. He never really held too much of a grudge against her anyway. "Fine by me."

Starfire looked at Terra, who shrugged as well. They both were people who didn't exactly forget what had happened in the past, but they also weren't going to let something that was long since over with ruin their lives. As of right now, nobody really wanted to get into a heated argument, so they simply let it drop.

"Just avoid contact her if you still don't like her," Nightwing suggested.

"Will do," Terra sighed. "I just feel uncomfortable around her."

"I have not yet forgiven our once friend Raven," Starfire said softly. "But I will accept her staying if I must."

"Er- What exactly did she do to you guys? Whenever I asked someone about it, you all kinda just looked at me funny and didn't talk about it at all."

"Well you should be able to guess by now."

"Yeah, something about turning into a demon and trying to kill you guys, but it's not unlike her."

"So you're saying we should've expected it?"

"Well, can you say that you didn't expect it at all?"

"Whoa Terra, you're the person I'd least expect to take Raven's side."

"Yeah dude, you hate her, don't you?"

Terra rolled her eyes. "Just because I don't like her doesn't mean I can't tell right from wrong. Like, Raven might not have been 'right' in attacking you guys, but she was your friend. You had to know why she would do something like that."

"Well, I mean, yeah we did. Sort of. We just thought she could control it better."

"Obviously she couldn't. So rather than bitch at her about it, why not try to help her?"

"Well, she's Raven. Helping her..."

Terra gave an exasperated sigh. "Well I guess that's something she and I have in common. Whenever my powers got out of control, nobody ever tried to understand me, except for you guys. And when I screwed up, you forgave me and even helped me get unstoned. So why didn't you help her? Were we really that different?"

Actually, none of them wanted to admit it, but the reason they hadn't tired to help her or understand her was fear. Terra was someone they could all easily relate to and someone they knew would open up to them easily. In Raven's case, they were afraid of what she might do, and even of what she was. The daughter of Trigon. A _demon. _It wasn't like she was some other petty humanoid mortal like Starfire, a Tameranian, or a meta human. She was a demon goddess. There was always going to be a certain amount of fear associated with that. _  
_

"Guess I can't blame you though," Terra admitted. "I'm scared of her too. And I don't exactly like her either."

Everyone looked away guiltily. Well, except for Jinx, who looked very angry.

"You guys abandoned her because you were _scared _of her? Holy crap..." She shook her head in disbelief. "And you called yourselves her friends..."

"She's _Raven. _You don't just go up to her and say you're out of control, let us help."

"I basically did. She's actually sort of friendly when you get to _really _know her."

"Oh really?" Cyborg looked at Jinx skeptically. "I feel like you're being obsessive here... there's no way _Raven _would be friendly."

"Okay, maybe friendly isn't the best word for it. And yeah, she's kinda grumpy. And moody. But she's still supposed to be our friend."

"_Was _supposed to be," Starfire frowned. "She is our friend no longer. We gave her the chance many times but she did not want to listen."

"Star, what do you even have against Raven anyway? Weren't you two pretty close at one point? Like after you switched bodies and stuff?"

"On my planet, there is no place for those who betray their friends. We call them the raknar. In your language they might be akin to outcasts. We do not give them the 'second chance'." (Yes, I made that word up.)

"Starfire's culture is a bit different that ours. They're warriors, after all. A bit more harsh than we are."

"But Starfire seems so... girly. It's hard to imagine her -"

"Just think about when she fights."

"Oh."

Starfire sighed. "I am right here, friends. Why are you talking about me as if I was not?"

"Yeah, and why are you talking about me as if I wasn't here either," Raven's quiet voice sounded from the kitchen, but only Jinx heard it.

The pink haired girl turned slightly and saw her violet haired friend pouring a cup of tea. Raven made a shh-ing motion, not expecting that anyone would have heard her speak. Jinx smirked to herself.

_Right. If she wanted to, she could probably hear everyone's thoughts in the whole city. There's no way our conversation is going to escape her, if she wants to listen in._

_Well, usually I don't like to, but since you guys were talking about me, I thought I might just figure out what everyone thought about me. _

Jinx looked up, but Raven was gone. She smiled to herself. So Raven was projecting her thoughts from her own room now, too afraid to face the rest of the Titans face to face. Well, at least for the moment. It was cute how nervous Raven could be sometimes, although kind of sad too. That she couldn't trust her old friends anymore... though, Jinx really couldn't blame her for that.

_I mean come on, Jinx. You really think I can trust them with anything? We're not friends anymore. They've said it, and so have I._

_Okay, maybe not all of them. But you seem to feel better 'bout Nightwing now._

_What makes you say that?_

_Oh please, Raven. I saw how friendly... well, it was friendly for you anyway... you were acting with him. You were actually reassuring him. _

_Maybe I have forgiven him. Does it matter?_

_Not really. Just surprises me that you'd do that. _

_Why? You haven't?_

_He hurt you... _

_So?_

_You're like the only person I care about. And he hurt you._

_Jinx. _The pink haired girl suddenly got an image of a dark lipped smirk. _Thanks for worrying. But don't._

_I can't help it. _

She heard the sound of a light sigh. _I understand, _Raven's voice sounded tight with nervousness. _I'm worried too. __  
_

_Whoa. Miss ice queen Raven actually admitting some of her emotions to me! Good to hear you lightening up a little._

An impression of a Raven glare. _I'm not lightening up. And I thought you wanted me to talk to you more about my emotions._

_Yeah, but you telling me that you're worrying or nervous is like you saying the sky is blue. Of course you're nervous. Nothing could be more obvious. _

_I wasn't aware that I came across as the nervous type.._.

_Well, on the surface you're not. But if you really weren't afraid, you'd be down here talking with the rest of us right now. _

_I would be. Jinx... _

_Yes hon? _

_Hon? I'm not your girlfriend or anything - _

Jinx giggled in her mind. _You basically are. And you were saying? _

Raven grumbled a little before replying. _Never mind. I wasn't going to say anything._

_Then why did you say my name?_

_Maybe I like the sound of it. _

_That _was something Jinx had not expected to hear. It was silent for a moment as she listened to the other Titans chat idly around her at the dinner table, the subjects of their conversations shifted away from Raven and toward more mundane things.

_Raven? _She thought back to the dark heroine after a moment. No reply. _Raven I know you're there. _She could sense the other girl's presence, but evidently Raven did not want to talk anymore, which was not too unusual for her. _Fine. If you don't want to talk that's okay. But I'll be here if you need me. And I'll be here whenever you're ready to face them._

Though her violet haired friend wasn't actually there, Jinx could sense the tense silence from the other girl. She knew that Raven needed her. _  
_

Opening up a psychic link wasn't exactly the same as standing in someone's presence and talking to them, but you could still feel the other person there. It wasn't some voice just coming out of nowhere, no, she could perceive a hint of Raven's emotions themselves, roiling about inside her. There was also the image of Raven's face, cold and impassive as usual...

_Wow. How can she look so calm when she's so scared? _

_I'm not-_

_Yes you are. _

_Well..._

_You can't deny it, Raven._

_Yes I can. Want me to prove it to you? _

Jinx's mouth twisted into a sly grin. _Sure. Come down here and face your old team. _

There was dead silence for a moment. _Rae, it can't be that bad... _

Raven did not respond. _You're gonna have to do it some time...__  
_

_Fine. I'll_ _come_.

Jinx looked up in surprise. The Titans had finished eating and were all sitting on the couch, watching a movie. Jinx, who had been consumed in her conversation with Raven, was the only one sitting at the dinner table and looking toward the doorway, where a dark shadow suddenly appeared. It took form after a moment, into a girl in a dark cloak with its hood up.

Jinx could practically feel the panic radiating off of her. It was in every fiber of her being, in the way she stood, slightly slouched over, on her face, in her trembling mouth, in her eyes, which were wide and fearful at times, and half lidded, almost depressed, at others. Her stare at Jinx basically screamed a desperate _Help me! _and she stood there silently, legs not wanting to move.

Nightwing must have felt her nervousness too because he turned around after a moment and caught the two girls looking at each other. He raised an eyebrow. Raven took a deep breath.

"Hi," she said quietly and stepped forward.

Four pairs of heads turned and Raven received three blank stares.

"Well, what do you want?" Terra broke the silence. "You're here. We got the memo."

"I just - " Raven looked down at the ground uncomfortably. "Oh never mind."

"She doesn't want there to be any hard feelings," Jinx broke in suddenly.

"Jinx-"

The pink haired girl threw a glare at Raven. _I'm trying to help you here. Just be quiet, _she seemed to say.

"Why does the demon Raven not speak for herself?" Starfire frowned deeply, angrily. "Surely she is not scared of us-"

"Star, there's no need - "

"Friend Cyborg, she has betrayed us and almost killed us. Do I not have a right to be angry?"

The metallic man looked at Raven, who was looking at her feet and fidgeting with her sleeves. If he had been able to see underneath her hood, he would have been able to see her eyes watering. But he couldn't see her, so he only sighed.

"You do have a reason to be angry, but maybe it's time to let it go - "

"Trust me. Women hold grudges," Terra cut him off. Her gaze at Raven was cold and unwelcoming. "Look, Cy, I know you're always the one trying to make peace, but aren't you even a little mad at her?"

Jinx glared at the blonde. "Why are _you _so against her? She didn't do anything to you."

"And why are you so for her? What are you two, lovers or something?"

"Friends."

"Yes, and we were 'friends' as well. Friend Jinx, she is a deceiver and a betrayer. You must be careful around her."

"You're just being stubborn. She's _changed." _

"Maybe you are not seeing how Raven manipulates people."

"Maybe you don't want to see the good in her."

"What good is there to see in her? She is a demon! Spawn of the Trigon!"

Jinx's head instantly shot around toward Raven, a worried expression on her face. The dark girl was completely still, not even trembling, bent slightly at the waist as if she were in pain.

"Enough is enough," Nightwing said quietly. "We don't need to go that far."

"You will not tell me what to do, Friend Nightwing-"

"Star, calm down," Beast Boy grabbed her arm as she tried to fly forward aggressively. "There's no need to get so worked up."

Starfire blinked a couple times and seemed to regain her composure. "I - " She took a deep breath. "I am sorry. I should not be letting my 'hot head' rule my mouth. But I still do not trust Raven."

"I don't either," Terra said slowly. "But she does seem to have changed. Before, she'd already have gone rage demon mode and tried to kill Star by now."

"I say second chance. She saved my life," Beast Boy chimed in.

"BB, what do you mean by second chance?"

"I mean she should be a Titan again. Or at least we could team up with her on somethings - "

"Okay dude, I think that's going a bit far - "

"Regardless, I will be working with her," Nightwing said calmly. "Whether she stays here in the Tower or not, or whether you guys want to work with her is up to you."

"I go where Raven goes. Kick her out of here into that hellhole of a city you made, and I'm going with her."

_Jinx. You don't have to - I could easily just go back to Gotham - _

_Then I'll follow you there._

_Why?_

_Do I have to say it?_

_I guess not? I know what you're thinking and feeling, after all. _

_Good. _

"Jinx? Hello?" Terra waved a hand in front of the girl's face. Jinx's cat-like eyes came unglazed over and she blinked.

"What?"

"Err, you were zoning out again. Anyway, I asked you about why you like Raven so much."

"We've got a lot in common. And what don't you like about her?"

"Uh, lots of things? She's like, always pmsing or something? She doesn't ever tell you what she's thinking and though she's supposed to be an empath or whatever, she doesn't seem to care about what you're thinking either. Can't you see that?"

"She just has a hard time showing what she's feeling, like you said."

"If Raven only wishes to show her feelings of hate to us, then why should we show her our love in return?" Starfire said bitterly.

"I'm telling you, she's not like that anymore - "

"How are we supposed to know that?" Terra retorted. "We haven't exactly seen it for ourselves. And she's too scared to say anything herself."

"Just give her a chance. Trust me."

"And why should we trust your opinion?" Starfire's temper flared up again. "You are only an honorary Titan and you have known her for not even much more than a week! Are you sure you are not being blind or stupid?"

"Don't insult her," Raven growled suddenly. "She's just as good as any of you."

There was a moment of tense silence, in which the two girls glared at each other. And then Cyborg stepped between them. "Enough is enough," he said tacitly, but firmly. "Star, go somewhere else and calm down for now. Raven, it's obvious you don't want to be here, so you should probably just go back to your room. Don't worry, nobody's going to kick you out, not after Nightwing and Jinx both want you here."

"Doesn't my opinion matter?" Beast Boy piped in.

"No."

"Aww Cy..."

Raven smiled slightly as the pair began to trade insults and taunt each other, as they had always done in the past. She exchanged a nervous look with Jinx, who shrugged at her - neither of them really could tell whether Raven's appearance in front of the other Titans had been productive or not, but it was done. At least next time, they would have seen her once already.

Cloaking herself in her powers, she transported herself back up to her room, back to the peace and quiet of the darkness.

* * *

A/N: Quick note on the portrayal of Starfire...

I've read tons and tons of stories where she's pretty nice and only goes angry kick butt mode when she has to, so I'm rather bored of that portrayal. Instead, if you guys remember in the episode with the origin of the Teen Titans, Starfire was pretty mad and irrational at times, but also kinda badass (at least in my opinion). Well, regardless, I've decided to characterize her (in this story) mostly the same, but with a pretty hot temper - angrier than most of the other depictions of Starfire. A little rough around the edges, but that's intended.

And remember that though she may seem a bit harsh this chapter, when people get mad, they say things they don't really mean and often later regret. What she says isn't really what she mean, she's just letting her temper rule her mouth.

Anyway, not a particularly important chapter in terms of the plot, but personally I found it fun to write, so I did so. It does develop Jinx and Raven's relationship somewhat, as well as show some of the opinions of the other Titans - Cyborg is ambivalent, Terra is sorta against her but somewhat willing to give her a chance, and Starfire's just mad, as stated above.

Next chapter will be one only between Raven and Jinx, fun fun.


	14. Convergence IV

Disclaimer: TT/DC I do not own

Lots of credit to **GinsengH **for critiquing my story and pointing out areas that need improvement. This chapter will be to address Raven and Jinx's relationship possibly progressing too quickly, so here's a nice long Rae/Jinx focused chapter...

Difficult to write, and maybe a bit wordy at times, but oh wellz, maybe it will be okay in the end.

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

_Night. _

At the shore, Raven's favorite spot. Quiet. Placid. Nobody to bother her. Beautiful in the darkness, serene in an empty void. Sight of the moon and stars overhead, the sky clear and dimly lit with pristine, white light, faintly glowing against the deep, indigo colored backdrop that matched her cloak very well.

She dipped her feet in the cool water and watched the ripples emanate outward. Her reflection in the water became distorted momentarily and as it did, another face appeared beside her own.

She acknowledged the other girl's presence by turning her head slightly before looking back into the water. Jinx sat beside her and opened her mouth to speak, but a Raven glare shut her up before she could say anything. So they just sat there in silence. Awkward silence...

Well, it wasn't really that awkward anymore, since Jinx had gotten used to Raven's being silent most of the time. But when she looked at the girl's pale face, it was as if she saw a million unspoken things that were waiting to be said, only she knew that Raven would opt not to say them if she had a choice. Instead, she would just stare out at the night scenery, the wide expanse of crepuscular black, and probably admire it, although it was hard to tell what exactly she was thinking.

Jinx turned her gaze toward the darkened sea as well. Stretching wide out, past the horizon, merging perfectly with the sky, endless expanse of shadow punctuated with pinpricks of light from the stars and crescent moon. Mysterious. Haunting. Just like her Raven.

But unlike Raven, she found herself unable to stare at the darkness for hours and hours, merely appreciating it for what it was. She had to have something more. Just looking was not enough.

"What do you like so much about this place anyway?"

She waited for a few moments for a response - Raven sometimes took a while.

"I don't know."

Jinx glared at her. She knew that Raven knew exactly why she liked the place, only it was very complicated and difficult to explain, so she had opted for the easy way out of answering by saying I don't know. Everyone did it, herself included.

Raven sighed. She didn't really feel like talking, but she also sensed Jinx's exasperation with her reticence. She also sensed that Jinx was trying to respect her like for peace and quiet, something she appreciated from the girl, and would probably shut up if Raven really wanted her to. But sometimes even Raven enjoyed having quiet conversations with another person (only one at a time, though). Especially with Jinx, just the way she talked, there was a sense of intimacy, like every sentence being a secret shared between two friends. But that was what they were, weren't they? Just friends.

"Why are we even friends anyway?"

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "You saved my life. Well, at least I thought you had. Okay then, you kept me out of Slade's dirty clutches."

"Saved plenty of people, none of them are my friends - "

"Well, not many of them are superheroes either."

"What difference does that make."

"Rae, civilians don't just get into relationships with superheroes, as friends, or closer. It's pretty rare for that to happen."

"Cyborg and Sarah-"

"Okay, one exception. Sue me."

Raven shrugged. "I guess. But none of my other, well, used to be friends, hung out with me nearly as much as you do."

"Well then they weren't really your friends."

"I thought they were."

"Yeah, and look at how they treated you."

"I guess. But then why should I trust you?"

"Uh, because we're friends? Why else?"

"What makes you think I can trust you as a friend? I thought they were too, but they betrayed me, didn't they?"

"So... you think I'd betray you..." Jinx said slowly. "Or you believe that I could."

Raven shrugged. In this situation, that was her yes. Jinx opened her mouth to yell at her, but then she thought better of it and decided to think before she spoke, for once. That was what Raven often did, after all.

Of course Raven believed that she might not actually be a friend. She had been betrayed by everyone in her past, her own mother to the monks of Azarath, her father - well, she didn't actually believe he'd be a good father, did she? - but by all of her supposed friends, companions, everyone. What was to make her believe that Jinx was any different? It wasn't like she could read her thoughts or anything - oh wait. Yes she could.

But Raven wasn't the type to just believe anything, including another person's thoughts, because thoughts could be manipulated. And she also didn't tend to delve deep into another's mind without consent because that was just... weird.

"How can I convince you?"

"What if I don't want to be convinced?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

Lots of reasons. She was afraid of other people. Afraid of being hurt, that was her classic reason. In truth, she was, she was definitely afraid of making a friend then losing her. If she had nothing to lose, then there was nothing to get hurt over, but if she had something to lose, then she had the world to lose as well. And of course, fear of being betrayed. Not much to say about that.

And also just the thought of a friend was strange to her. After so many years of being alone, like literally alone, with nobody else to support her, she had gotten used to the solitude and independence. Even as a Titan she was a loner, and after she had left, even more so. Close contact with a person after all those years was something she didn't feel like she could adapt to quickly.

And besides that, she was naturally inclined to introversion. Being social wasn't her thing. But with just one other person? Was that really so bad?

Yes. She thought that she just didn't like interacting with other people. She preferred being alone.

What was so good about being social anyway? You really didn't get to know anyone at all. The only thing people talked about were superficial things like what they did, or what they liked, their preferences, what and who they hated, but not really _who _they were. People were not just described as a bunch of dislikes, favorites, or associations. And when it came down to their innermost "person," people were not _that _different either.

If she really wanted to, Raven could invade that personal space and determine what each person was on the inside, what they truly believed and what they were, and she would find that many of them were similar, imbued with characteristics, thoughts, and moral codes that matched a large number of other people in society. In this way, they could be broken up into groups, like the "conservatives" with a certain outlook on the world and were essentially the same in what they believed and did to follow those beliefs, or "liberals" which were also similar. Sure, they had their own unique professions, likes, dislikes, or personality traits even, but their cores were the same.

So if people really were similar enough to be identified as broad groups, then what was the point in being social and finding out that one person, in his or her fundamental being, was not different from the next guy?

Of course, superheroes were naturally a different group than most people. Most of them were imbued with a sense of justice and morality far above the average person, and most believed in people as a whole. Good at heart, working for progress, helpful, optimistic, caring for each other... And how they were themselves. Social people, kind, loving, and yet all imbued with their own inner darkness that they strove to overcome. Suffering as well.

And then there were even the minorities among the superheroes, the few like Batman, who were consumed by their own darkness, pessimists, yet fighting harder than those other superheroes, fighting harder than all the others for justice, even though they might not have believed in people as a whole. But they did it because of their own morality.

And then the even fewer like Raven. Maybe it was only her. Consumed by darkness, a demon, residing in that world of grey between black and white, ambivalent about everything, yet fighting for justice just because. There really was no reason why. She just did it. She could have easily been fighting for her father to take control of the dimension. Easily could have been wreaking havoc and destruction on the world, but it seemed that her more human - rather, humane - side was stronger.

So she ended up being a superhero residing in morally grey realm (that was very difficult, for those who had not experienced it), rather than a supervillain.

But back to the original question, she would rather have figured out who she was as a demon-human rather than find out that humans were very much the same. (Though in truth, demons were too).

Yet she wasn't as self-centered as one might have though. Though she didn't like interacting with others, she still cared about what they thought, their feelings, their emotions. She didn't like it when people got hurt, and it wasn't just because she experienced the hurt itself. She just... didn't want them to suffer. In some senses, she was completely selfless in how much she cared.

Maybe that was why she cared so much about what Jinx felt and what she thought. Or maybe it was something else.

All that thought in merely a moment. "Maybe I just don't want friends." A wonderful way to express all of her thoughts.

"I would ask you why not, but you wouldn't answer me."

"Probably not," Raven admitted. "But maybe you understand?"

Jinx wondered about that. She had always been a more social person. She liked people just for their company, though at times she didn't like people because they were annoying, not empathetic, couldn't understand, hurtful...

It was strange. She was an optimist-pessimist, an extrovert-introvert, often shifting between the two moods in the middle of a thought. It was why she could be out there with the most social of superheroes and hog the spotlight, like the old Robin had been, but also sit next to the brooding Raven and be away from all other people for hours or even days on end. And understand why Raven was the way she was. Because their personalities - or rather, half of Jinx's personality and Raven's - were similar.

"I guess I do."

"Good." Raven turned away, and Jinx suddenly felt very out of place, like an invader or something.

"But maybe we can just talk? Doesn't have to be about us being friends..."

"What's the point in talking?"

"I dunno. Maybe you'd get bored of silence all the time?"

"Maybe," Raven agreed. "Okay, talk."

"...What?"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Talk?"

Jinx looked shocked. "You're actually okay with talking?"

Raven sighed. "Yeah. I'm not _that _quiet."

"Okay then. What do you want to talk about?"

"Whatever you want to talk about."

Jinx thought for a moment. "What's your favorite color?"

Silence. Jinx grinned sheepishly. "Most overused question, I know."

Raven was still silent, deep in thought. "I don't know," she replied softly. "But," she spoke again right as Jinx was about to yell at her for not answer the question, "I'll show you what I think about it."

(Not writing in her thoughts here, check out "Shades of Me" if you want to know what she thinks).

A long pause. "Wow," Jinx said finally. "Err-"

"Now do you get why it's hard for me to respond to your questions?"

"Well yeah, if you actually said everything you thought, your throat would like die before you finished."

Raven nodded. "But technically my favorite's pink."

"And I just happen to be pink-"

"Coincidence."

Jinx laughed softly. "Right. Anyway... Heard that Beast Boy liked you while you were still on the team."

"A momentary infatuation that passed quickly enough. I did not like him back, though I did appreciate his concern."

"Maybe you just didn't like him back because you were too busying loving Nightwing-"

Raven glared at her, but then relented. "Maybe. But he's not my type."

"Well, yeah, I could guess that much. But then who is your type?"

"Nobody."

"Well obviously Nightwing was-"

"One exception."

"Flawed logic much?"

Raven sighed heavily. "I guess. It's just hard to explain."

"Well, try."

"I can't."

"Rae..."

"No."

"Pleaseeeeee..."

"Fine. I'll try."

Jinx smiled widely and Raven rolled her eyes.

"I like... someone who knows what suffering is. And won't judge a person in terms of black and white."

"Obviously. Tell me something I don't know."

Raven sighed. "Well, for me to like someone, a lot of the little things have to be perfect. Like, really weird little things."

"Like?"

The violet haired girl shrugged. "Dressing in dark colors. Not yawning too widely. Being a certain height - not too tall or short, being stingy, being obsessive-"

"You _like _that in people?"

"Well, yeah. And they've gotta have a certain type of smile, sometimes looking very nice and sweet and sometimes looking like a smirk. And they've gotta be sarcastic and witty. And they have to be private people and don't easily share things except with their closest friends. And I like people with bad tempers. And I like people who are more mature. And they have to be able to stare at things for a long time. And let me stare at them for a long time. And sit in silence. And-"

"Okay, I get it. You're obsessive."

"And let me guess, you like people who are-"

"Do you even need to guess? You can just read my mind."

Raven smirked but then looked at her surprised. "You don't like those guys like Kid Flash or Superman or stuff? I thought you'd like people who are more social and peppy and stuff."

"That's what you'd think, but after that whole thing with Kid Flash dumping me 'cause I was a witch, I started losing faith in them. They just don't understand."

"Pretty much."

"Like, yeah, they know what suffering is, but they don't understand what it's like to lose control and have people die because of it. They don't have to control themselves that much, at least not like we do. And you know, when we do end up hurting people badly, they think that we don't care at all! Like, what the hell? Can't they see that we feel horrible about it? And then we get some huge lecture about how killing people is bad, like we meant to do that in the first place, and we can't kill villains or anyone, and blah blah blah. But you know what? I know this because I worked with the HIVE once. Some of those guys deserve to die. They're just horrible people. But I guess I'm biased 'cause they were my friends, but not all of the guys in the HIVE are like bad people. Or all those other villains, some of 'em are okay. They don't deserve to be hunted down."

"You know Catwoman?"

"The one that Batman had something goin' on with?"

"Yeah. You basically described her."

"Yeah, but then there's those guys like the Joker. He should be dead. Dunno why Bats hasn't gotten rid of him yet."

Raven nodded. She agreed with Jinx fully. As someone who had become a hero from initially being a villain, she knew that Jinx would be able to understand the whole gradient of light of dark and the whole some people deserved to die and others weren't actually that bad. She liked the fact that Jinx shared a lot of her opinions on the whole good and evil thing, which really didn't exist because it was hard to be purely good or evil, and people followed different moral codes, and it wasn't one person's place to say this was right or this was wrong.

It was hard to find someone like that, but she supposed that was why Jinx was comfortable to talk to. She didn't make Raven feel weird about herself.

"Anyway, what's the deal with you and Batman? Isn't he too old for you-"

"Jinx! We're not together. He _is _too old for me."

Jinx laughed. "Sorry, I was just teasing. But seriously, you two just like stare at each other all the time and it looks so weird."

"You stare at me all the time. You calling yourself weird?"

"I don't have a problem with that. You stare at a lot of stuff too."

"You can figure a lot more stuff out by staring than just talking."

"Can you?"

"Yeah. Wanna try?"

"You're on."

Raven turned to face Jinx and lowered her hood. Jinx blinked.

Raven was both smiling and frowning at the same time. How fitting. Raven was a whole mass of conflicts, like how her eyes were shining pools of dark violet, or how her mouth was twisted into a sad smile, then into an understanding smirk, how her whole expression spoke of someone who was depressed and had given up, yet how the firm set of her mouth and eyes showed that she wasn't ready to give up at all and how she always fought and how her willpower was amazing though she seemed to lose hope so often. How the shadows on her pale complexion and the languor in her face made her seem so hopeless, but the fire in her eyes...

When it came down to it, Raven was completely the opposite of what she seemed to be. A fighter. Melancholic, but never giving in. Well, not an extrovert, but completely consumed by emotion as opposed to her frosty appearance. And someone in denial.

Jinx was looking at her very earnestly, her usual cat-like smirk gone, eyes lit with all her little discoveries in Raven's face and demeanor. Although, she still did look like a curious cat, exploring the unknown carefully, finding something she liked, then treading cautiously in the other direction. She looked pretty happy as she continued staring, well, Jinx generally seemed to be a happy person, though her eyes did not show that at all. Narrowed cat slits, she might have looked angry if you looked only at those, but then again, she did have a hot temper. Then sometimes, when they were shimmering, she did indeed look very sad, downcast, like a sad kitten.

And a very emotional person, but superficially she seemed like a drama queen. Sometimes, indeed, she was. She overreacted to things, but Raven did that as well, so that wasn't something unique to her. But when Kid Flash had told her she didn't have to be the villain and that she wasn't just the bad luck her powers gave her, and that the universe wasn't necessarily saying she was evil anything, when he had said all that, it showed just how deeply her fears and insecurities ran. How she actually felt like she might be just a blight on society and the only way to make something of herself was to be super good at being evil, rather than being a superhero. Because she wasn't good at all. She was always afraid of her bad side and losing control.

And then when he had dumped her because of her "bad side" not being controlled very well, she had practically faded out of existence for a couple days, and it showed even more how she could be hurt, but how she had been able to bounce back and had become determined to prove them all wrong, to prove that their whole black and white world was incorrect and really everything was in shades of grey, and she was no less important than they were.

All that in the fire in her eyes, and inside her mind, although Raven's eyes were blessed with the ability to see inside the girl's mind. Raven was startled to see how similar they were in that aspect. Neither of them exactly what they seemed. And at the core of both of them, a drive to prove that they were something to the world, not just worthless heaps of trash doomed to be bad luck, or destroyers of everything around them. They wanted to prove that they could be useful to someone or something, and be "good," and saviors as well, though good was a very subjective term. But curiously, they both had that same definition of good. Not the one that those other superheroes had, but one that was in the area between what was classically called "justice" and "injustice," but which were really meaningless terms.

Both of them very determined to prove themselves.

But that wasn't all there was to it. People were complicated, and superheroes who suffered on the border of supervillainry were more complex than most.

Both of them liked to think that they could be independent. No need for help. Could work alone, in solitude just fine. Jinx had been like that when the HIVE had stubbornly resisted her efforts to join the Brotherhood, and especially after she had left them, she had to find her own way because Kid Flash wasn't always there to support her. She wanted to prove that _she _alone could be a hero, and that it wasn't just someone else guiding her or pushing her to be.

And then after he had left her, she had really been alone. But she had pulled herself together and continued on her own path.

And Raven was much the same. Even more alone than Jinx was, she had lost her way for a while before finding it again _by herself. _No help needed.

And yet, as much as both of them wanted to be alone, fighting their own way in the world by themselves, sometimes that wasn't actually what they wanted. Yes, they wanted to prove _themselves _to be worth something. That was the base drive, goal of their lives. What their hearts wanted was something else.

It was too common to say that they each needed another person to lean on and support them, and that really wasn't what it was.

Having someone to care about was a very powerful motivating force, one that even surpassed the instinct to escape death. It was good to have someone to want to protect and cherish, as well as help dispel bad emotions and nurse hurt feelings. Helped keep one sane. And focused on the other important goal.

Of course, it wasn't logic that dictated such a thing. Sometimes, people just cared about each other. Was there something so wrong with that?

_Yes, there is. I shouldn't be caring about her anyway. She's just someone who randomly came here and wanted to talk to me. Nothing special about that. Happened plenty of times. Besides we've only known each other for like what, a couple weeks at most? Acquainted at best. _

But she couldn't help the fact that there was something about Jinx that was pretty attractive. Not in the visual sense... okay, she did like Jinx's looks too, but she liked the girl for who she was as well. It was nice to finally have someone understand her feelings and the way she viewed the world. It was because they were like each other that they cared about each other. To protect themselves as the precious few people in the world that thought the way they did, because both of them were special (though other people didn't view that "being special" in a good way), and they both needed protecting, and not just by themselves, but from each other.

"See, staring helps."

Jinx blinked a couple times, as if she were waking up. "Yeah. It does."

Raven gave off a contented sigh and turned away, raising her hood again. "I love this place because it reminds me of how alone I am in the world. But it also has so many of the things I love. Darkness. The moon. The stars, the sky. The sea, cool waters. Solitude. It's so free and empty, like there's nothing tying me to the world, like I have nothing to worry about or to suffer for. Just sweet nothingness. Better than my meditation."

"It _is _pretty nice here. Although I'm ruining that whole 'solitude' part of it..."

"As long as we don't have to talk too much, that's fine."

Jinx laughed. "Okay. I'll be quiet."

They sat there in silence until dawn. As the sun rose, Raven turned to Jinx and gave her a tiny smile before disappearing into her shadowy raven form and returning to her room in the Tower, where she would most likely be sleeping until afternoon. Jinx smiled a bit but then sighed as well, knowing that not much had changed between Raven and her. She still only considered them acquainted, maybe at best, friends, but "just friends," as she had stated many times. But maybe she felt a little more comfortable around the pink haired girl, now that they had spent some more time together. Either way, Jinx was determined to get the dark girl to open up a little more. Just a little bit.

* * *

They were alike as well.

Nightwing looked down at the orange and black mask, resisting the urge to tear it off of the man's head and peer at the face underneath. There was no need to state why he and the once powerful supervillain were alike. Obsessive. Intelligent, calculating, manipulative. And not trusting.

His fingers twitched. He wanted to rip the mask off his face so badly, to stare at the man who had caused him so much trouble in the past, who had driven him to the point of insanity, to find out just who he was. But he resisted. Not out of fear, but because there was no need. Because ultimately, it was not two different people fighting, but two similar men who happened to have one thing different between them. Slade was grey, perhaps a little black. And Nightwing was in black and white. Slade was the tormentor, and Nightwing was supposedly justice. That was it.

But once they became "just" people, then everything would change. A petty squabble between men rather than a fight of ideals. So he could not remove the mask.

They had decided to throw Slade's body out to sea as a gesture of setting the man's soul free. Throughout his long career of fighting the Titans, he had rarely, if ever, revealed his true intentions in what he was doing. Even when claiming that he wanted an apprentice to pass on his legacy, he had not seemed to be entirely truthful. It was not entirely clear what he wanted. Maybe he was just another psychopath who reveled in chaos, but that seemed unlikely given the designs of his many plots. They seemed purposeful, even if nobody had ever figured out that purpose to them. Not just random acts of destruction. Maybe he just wanted to send a message.

Either way, they decided that he had not been fully understood, and though he was evil, part of him was still a man, a man with goals and morals, and maybe that man could be separated from the villain.

So they had thrown his body out to sea, as if to free the man's soul from the villain's body. And he was gone, forever.

* * *

The following weeks were a nightmare for Nightwing and the Titans, with demons suddenly popping up in Jump as they had been in other cities, causing chaos everywhere. Crime rates had skyrocketed and the police force had been reduced drastically with all the fighting, and left to fight alone, the Titans had been outmatched several times by the horde of demons, not to mention the several appearances of Raven's brothers - though two of them were notably missing. Maybe Wrath and Lust were on vacation.

It was ironic, then, that the weeks passed smoothly for Raven and Jinx, who did their share of helping to fight the demons, but both were never really in any danger, and there was nobody around when either of them fought, so there was no risk of collateral damage either. It was easy just to simply take care of the demons then go back to the Tower while Nightwing and the others always seemed to get the difficult job of fighting in the thick of things against Raven's brothers.

It wasn't just smooth in that sense though. Everyday, or rather, every night, Jinx found Raven sitting at the shoreline, and every time they would watch the sun set, and then talk for a little while in the darkness until Jinx fell asleep. (Or occasionally, she managed to stay awake until dawn.) And sometimes they sat in the silence and stared at each other, as Raven had suggested, and it was just as good as talking, as Jinx had found out, because you could see so much just by looking.

Gradually, Raven grew more comfortable in Jinx's presence, and the opposite was true as well.

Jinx might not have been the introvert that Raven was, but she did not often reveal her true emotions (besides anger) when talking to most people. But slowly she began to allow herself a bit of breathing room around Raven and show that she wasn't such a happy, bubbly person, that a lot of stuff irritated her, like Beast Boy and Terra being all lovey dovey romantic all the time, or Starfire's too cheery attitude, or Cyborg's obnoxious enthusiasm about renovating the Tower all the time, and despite her irritation, she always put on a smiling face. But around Raven, she felt like she could let it drop a little.

And Raven, in turn, had seemed a little more at ease while talking or in Jinx's presence. Less tense, her voice less of a strained monotone and more of a natural one. (If a monotone at all was natural, but for her it was.) And sometimes even let some emotion show on her face and in her voice. It had been quite a shock the first time Jinx had seen it, but now she thought that Raven looked cute when she smiled - even though they were very small smiles - or she really wanted to comfort the girl when she looked sad, which was very often. Either way, though Raven did not seem emotional at first, she had a very expressive pair of eyes and Jinx slowly learned how to read the other girl better.

It was all a matter of comfort and understanding. And over the weeks, there was that sense of having both of them. So, were they really

"Just friends?" Jinx asked quietly.

"No. Friends," Raven replied. "We're friends."

_Better, but we can be more than that. One day, maybe we will. _

Maybe.

* * *

A/N: No notes this time. Stay tuned for updates.


	15. Wings of Fury

Disclaimer: Don't own anything from DC/TT

I'll admit that I've been slacking off a little... slow update, sorry.

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

_Trigon's Realm, Hell _

Wrath had an enormous headache. And it wasn't because his father was yelling in his ears about how Lust had failed to protect the human or he was failing at everything he was doing and jeopardizing their plan, yada yada yada, he actually wasn't listening to that.

He was getting a headache because, being an empath like Raven, he had suddenly gotten a huge influx of emotions from elsewhere, he couldn't pinpoint exactly where, and it was really messing with his system.

He ignored Trigon and walked out of the palace, clutching his head. What was with this sudden rush of emotions? Lots of rage, hate, also a sense of sadness, rejection. Oppression.

He focused in on the influx of feelings and traced them back to their source. Following them through the boiling red skies of Hell, past the furious lightning and firestorms raging in the clouds, out of the dimension altogether, to Earth... to the one they called Raven, but the one known to him as Pride.

She was... distressed?

Not quite. The emotions weren't exactly coming from _her... _but rather from within her... And then his search for the source of the emotions was interrupted as someone approached behind him.

"Lust," he greeted his brother.

"Wrath," the demon replied. "Father is upset with you."

"He always is. Nothing's going to change that," Wrath muttered bitterly. "He's always mad at all of us."

"Yes, but normally you are very good at ignoring him."

"And I ignored just him fine this time as well."

Lust raised an eyebrow. "Then why do you seem so unsettled?"

He shrugged. "No particular reason."

"It is our sister, is it not?"

Wrath looked at him curiously, as if to say _how did you know? _

"We all have some degree of empathic ability, I think," Lust replied to the unspoken question. "Yours just happens to be stronger than the rest of ours. But I could feel it too. Do we go help her?"

"I was not aware that you actually cared for her well being-"

"I went and observed her as you suggested. She is much as you described."

"So you see."

"We should let her be. Father won't be happy about it, but he is never happy about anything."

"Father is a fool," Wrath muttered. "And we are a fool's slaves."

"So why do we still follow him?" Lust grumbled back.

Wrath shrugged. "Who among us can defeat him, let alone replace him?"

Lust sighed, and his eyes narrowed. "Only one. And she has problems of her own right now. But I say we must support her, as much for her sake as for our own."

"And bash in the skulls of those who would threaten her. Miserable humans," Wrath growled. "I suppose we should pay a visit to the human world now."

"After you," Lust followed his elder brother along the path leading away from Trigon's palace to the border of the realm, where they opened a portal, revealing a gigantic T of metal and glass.

"Here we go," and they both stepped through.

* * *

_I'm still here you know. You can't ignore me forever. _

"Azarath metrion zinthos." Raven was hovering a couple feet off of the ground in her classic meditating position, facing the sunset.

The deepening colors in the skies began casting long shadows around her and she got a slightly eerie sensation from all the distorted shapes, like she was not really there but in some illusion instead. And though her eyes were closed, she could sense the world around her so vividly that she could practically see it in her mind. Whirling figures of darkness all around her, some welcoming, some strange, foreboding, some outright threatening.

She usually wasn't _this _aware of her surroundings while meditating, though she kept some degree of awareness for security's sake because she was paranoid like that. Today, however, she couldn't relax at all - her mind had decided to wander and explore the aberrant shadows around her rather than relax. That was bad. If she couldn't meditate, her demon would get out of control and everyone knew what that meant.

Frustrated, she repeated "azarath metrion zinthos" a little more forcefully. Her brows knitted together and she frowned, trying desperately to focus on nothing rather than something. But no, the anomalous darkness around her would not give her rest. Rising off the ground, the gloomy umbrage took form in the shape of Raven herself, creating one, then two, then a swarm of her, all cast in inky blackness, all with their hoods up, faces naught but pairs of glowing ivory eyes. Pinpricks of a ghastly pallor.

_Raven, _they whispered. _Raven, we are still here. Raven... _

Raven bit her lip and willed her eyes to open, but they remained shut.

_Raven..._

_Raven... _

_Raven... _

They whispered her name over and over in voices that were startlingly high and soft, like the voices of little children. Then,

_Raven... _

A deeper voice, more like her own, maybe a slight bit higher, creating a bizarre harmony with the higher pitched soprano voices. A third,

_Raven... _

A perfect imitation of her own voice, completing a triad. An augmented chord, one voice seemingly out of place, strangely enough, the one that matched her own. And suddenly,

_**Raven..**_

A deep voice that was distinctly male and distinctly not her own. She gasped but her eyes still did not open. That voice was one that she would recognize anywhere, anytime, even if she was dead - Trigon.

A gigantic, shadowed Raven rose up off the ground and towered above all the others as it glared down at her with that pair of terrible, ashen eyes. Not herself. No, that wasn't her, that was her demon, that thing she had inherited from Trigon, the cause of all her troubles, the thing she had fought so long to suppress-

_No. That's not me. _A quiet voice spoke from behind her and the mass of shadowy Ravens around her whirled around, spinning around her. And as they came to a halt, she got an image of one hovering slightly off the ground in front of her, one that was her height and shape except for the tentacles protruding from underneath the cloak. A pair of shackles chained its hands together and she could see a pair of chains wrapped around each of its ankles, tying her back. Four red eyes opened from underneath the hood, but the voice that spoke was not harsh at all.

_I'm the one you're looking for. _It spoke a lot more softly than Raven would have thought, though there was a slight edge to the tone - but it seemed perfectly natural, not a menacing harshness at all. _That thing, _it gestured to the giant Raven behind it, _is your perception of me. _

_No... _Raven shook her head, eyes still closed.

The demon Raven pulled down her hood and revealed a very Raven-like face behind the mask of crepuscule. She looked exactly like Raven, only instead of two large, violet eyes, there were four smaller, more angular ones in their place, her skin was a shade of sanguine rather than grey, and her hair was pure white and much longer than her own. There was also a black collar around her neck, which seemed to cause her great discomfort, even though it did not appear to do any physical harm to her.

When she opened her mouth to speak, Raven could also see that her teeth were jagged and sharp, like fangs.

**_I am you._ **Its voice was forceful, yet somewhat hurt as well. _Why do you do this to me?_

_You're not me! I'm not a demon! I'll never be a demon! _

_What's so wrong with being a demon? It is who you are._

Cold sweat began running down her face as all of the other Ravens drew in closer. Their macabre, pallid stares began making her very uncomfortable. Behind them, the sky had turned a deep shade of grey with the advent of storm clouds and a light, misty rain began to fall. The giant Raven in the midst of the swarm of smaller ones turned its gaze to her and blinked a couple times.

_Raven, set me free! You cannot hide me away forever! _

_No! I can't trust you! You're... you're a demon! You'll try to take over my body! You'll just use me to destroy everything you see-_

_Or, you're being paranoid. _

Demon Raven pulled on her hood and once again became no more than two pairs of crimson eyes. Raven stood up, afraid, and tried to back away but ended up colliding with one of the other shadowy Ravens. She turned and gasped, eyes still closed. She tried to back away from it as well, but the Raven had grabbed her wrist and would not let go. Its grip was an iron vice - it would not budge, even a little.

The Raven next to it grabbed her other wrist and then the two of them turned her body around, still holding onto her, while a third one pulled off her hood. And she came face to face with demon-Raven again.

_**Why do you do this to me?!**_ It screamed at her suddenly. _**What have I done to deserve this?!**_

Suddenly, demon Raven loomed up above her, tentacles waving wildly from beneath the cloak. Raven held her breath, choked up in fear.

_**Answer me!** _Demon Raven's voice boomed in the falling rain. She continued growing larger and larger until she was just as tall as the gigantic, white-eyed Raven behind her.

The real Raven was too frightened to speak. She opened her mouth but her voice got stuck in her throat and nothing came out. Teeth gritted, demon Raven advanced toward her and grabbed her in an enormous, black cloak covered hand, and brought her up to its four-eyed glare. Raven struggled in the grip but could do nothing.

_**Why?! **_Its voice was like thunder in the sky.

_No... _Raven whispered, and desperately willed her eyes to open once again. _Stop it! Let me out of here! This isn't real. This is just some illusion, an image. If I open my eyes it'll all be gone. Just have to..._

_**You're not going to escape from here until you deal with me!** _Demon Raven growled at her darkly. _**Answer! Do you not have the courage to admit that you were simply afraid?! Or is there another reason! Why do you not answer me?! Raven!-**_

Raven gasped as she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She blinked a couple times before realizing that she had been sprawled on the ground and then instantly got up and hugged the person behind her tightly.

"Saved," she breathed out softly.

Jinx looked at her strangely. "From what? And why are you hugging me all of sudden? Not like I don't enjoy it, but..."

Raven broke away and it finally registered that she was no longer in that illusion. She looked away uncomfortably. "I didn't mean to-"

"Suurrrreee," Jinx practically purred at her and earned a Raven glare. "So, what's wrong?" She asked seriously.

"Nothing," Raven muttered back, and sat on the ground, looking around. She was still in her normal evening spot - on the shore, facing the bay - but it was already night, and apparently it had been raining lightly for a while because she was completely soaked. Closing her eyes - _wait, no. Bad idea. _

She took a deep breath as Jinx spoke again.

"Why don't you ever talk?"

"I'm talking right now, aren't I?"

Jinx huffed at her. "I meant about your problems and emotions. Obviously something was wrong but you're not telling me."

"Nothing was wrong. I was... uh... taking a nap."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Right. That's why you were practically screaming your head off and-"

"Bad dream," Raven retorted. "And I was screaming?"

"No, I just made that up."

Raven gave her a glowering look but said nothing and turned away, raising her hood. Jinx sighed.

"Raven-"

"I'm not going to talk."

"But-"

"No."

Jinx gave off a noise of irritation but ended up sitting beside the other girl, letting the issue drop. It was silent for a couple hours, save for the sound of waves hitting the shore. And then,

"I have to do this some time," Raven whispered. She stood up and looked at the sky for a moment.

"What are you talking about- Hey!" Jinx yelled at her as she suddenly disappeared.

Grumbling to herself, she headed back to the Tower to search for the violet haired girl.

* * *

_The Watchtower _

The screen in the founders' meeting room turned on and Batman's face appeared. He looked around, checking if anyone was there, but the room appeared to be empty.

Muttering to himself, he moved to close off the connection but then Superman came flying into the room.

"Wait, Bruce!" He sounded quite hurried. "What's up?"

Batman raised an eyebrow. "What's the problem on your end? You sound troubled."

Superman sighed. "Well, I'll tell you after you tell me what you've got. Find anything useful?"

"Just a hypothesis," the dark knight replied smoothly. "A weakness in demons that we can exploit, but not well tested. It worked on the weaker ones we've been encountering, so now Gotham's clear of them at least, but I don't know how much of an effect it will have on stronger ones. Haven't had any test subjects."

"Well that's good to hear," but Superman didn't sound very enthusiastic at all.

"Now tell me what's going on."

"Remember when Darkseid was after Kara?"

"To make her captain of those furies or whatever?"

"Yeah."

"He's back to take her or something?"

"Apparently he sent some scouts a couple weeks back. Never had any intentions of leaving her alone to begin with. He was waiting for us to let our guard down so he could come back and kidnap her."

"But now she's-"

"Yes, I know. You don't need to remind me."

"Right. I was merely pointing out that-"

"He knows already."

"So what's he still coming here for?"

"You know what he's like. Someone beat his to be champion."

"So he's going to seek out that person and make him - or her - the new one. Only catch. Those 'people' are Trigon's minions."

Superman nodded. "He took it to mean Raven, or so he said."

Batman was surprised, though he hid it well. "He came and said all this?"

"We caught him in the act. He asked me why he couldn't sense Kara anywhere. Then he saw the demons. And I suppose his logic made sense because usually lesser demons don't act without some sort of guidance, so who better to be that force than Trigon's own daughter?"

"Only, he got the sides mixed up. She's not a villain."

"I wouldn't put too much trust in her, Bruce - " Superman was cut off as he was met with an cold batglare. "Right, we can discuss that later. Either way, she didn't kill Kara, we know that. But he doesn't. He wants to take her back to Apokalips to be his champion. Oh, and he sent a message for you. He got rid of the hellspores."

"Not a guy to be caught with his pants down twice," Batman grumbled. "Why'd he just pick up and leave, though? Thought he would've fought you guys."

"Maybe he learned his lesson last time. Better to play it safe and fight us with an army at his back rather than by himself?"

"Maybe," the dark knight agreed. "He might be arrogant but he likes winning too. He wouldn't risk screwing up just because of something like his own pride. How much time do we have before he gets here with his army?"

"I don't know. A week? Probably less than that. League's in disarray right now. He couldn't have chosen a worse time to show up, with all these demons running around everywhere and Jump turning into a hellhole with God knows what hiding there. I still can't believe that they managed to take down GL though-"

"We don't know if he's gone yet. GL is pretty strong, you know."

"Not like you to be so optimistic, Bruce-"

"Would you rather I say he's definitely dead?"

"No," Superman admitted. "But there's a good chance. Those things managed to take down Kara and Tim, and a whole bunch of other Leaguers. And supposedly there's stronger things hiding in Jump. Least that's what Nightwing told me. Raven's brothers, I think he said they were. I don't know for sure though. Is he a reliable source of information?"

"No, but Raven is. I'll go speak to her about this-"

"Bruce, I wouldn't trust her so easily-"

The dark knight cut him off with an icy glare. "Trust my judgment, Clark. She's clean."

"I trust your judgment most of the time, but these are powerful demons we're talking about. Really good at warping the mind. And as much as you hate it, you're just a human with no resistance to their type of power. She could just be manipulating you."

"She also saved the world from her father, in case you forgot."

"We don't know that. We don't know anything about the situation or what happened or anything. For all we know, it might just have been a power struggle between two demons. Not that I want to go so far to say that, but-"

"Clark, you haven't ruled out the possibility that she's the one behind these demon attacks." An accusation.

Superman sighed. "No, I haven't. Think about it. It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Raven resurfaces in Jump-"

"She resurfaced first in Gotham. I saw that, there's no question about it."

"Fine. But she then went to Jump and not too long after that we get a whole bunch of problems with demons springing up, Jump turning into something worse than Gotham, GL going missing, and your buddy Nightwing going crazy, at least according to you."

"He's always had that in him. Not something new."

"But something must have triggered it."

"Guy called Slade. His archnemesis. Like the Joker is to me. Or Lex is to you. Or-"

"I know who he is. He's in the League database too. I took the liberty of pulling up a file on him and it turns out that he actually served Trigon at one point but later defected and disappeared for quite some time. Point is, he's related in some way to them as well."

"Trigon and Raven are totally different-"

"Demons are demons, Bruce. I know you want to believe in the whole 'the world is in shades of grey' thing, and that she might be good, but open your eyes. How many demons do you know of are good guys?"

"None," Batman admitted. They both knew that Etrigan was only kept in check by being tied to Jason Blood and he would probably be given to destruction of everything around him if set free. "But Raven is half human too."

"I understand. I'm not accusing her of anything at this point, but I also can't trust her. Most of the others agree with me, so we've decided to monitor her actions closely. We need to have someone go to Jump to do that."

He paused, and Batman got the message. "And you want me to do that."

"You're the best at this kind of stuff-"

"How do you know I'm not going to be biased."

"Because you're too honest to be. No matter what, I've always known you to be an impartial observer."

"Well I refuse," Batman grumbled. "Get someone else to do it."

"But, Bruce-"

"It's obvious that my word alone isn't going to get you guys to work with her rather than view her as a threat. Get someone else to watch her and maybe they'll see that she's got some good in her too. Batman out."

The screen flicked off and Superman sighed, rubbing his head. Bruce could be annoyingly stubborn at times, but the man did say what he truly believed. He had thought that the dark knight might not accept the job, though, so he had thought of some others who might have been well suited for the job, and it had been fine, initially, until Darkseid had showed up and announced his invasion (well, just to kidnap a girl, but an invasion nonetheless) of Earth. So now almost everyone was occupied with the coming battle.

So then there was only one option left.

* * *

"Raven! I know you're in there! Answer me!" Jinx pounded on the door to Raven's room.

Inside, the violet haired teen struggled to maintain focus over the sound of Jinx's voice. _Ignore her. Just keep calm and focus. Just-_

"Raven, why don't you ever answer me! What's wrong? Talk to me!"

Raven's brow furrowed and she began repeating "azarath metrion zinthos" rapidly under her breath, trying to shut everything else out. _You can't get involved in this. It's too dangerous, and besides, if you saw what my demonic side was really like, you wouldn't be my friend anymore. I'm sorry. I just can't trust you with who I am just yet. _

"I don't get why you're always like this, Rae. We have so much in common, but I still don't understand you sometimes. Why don't you ever open up? Or let someone help you?" She paused, waiting for a reply, but got none. "Ugh! Why can't you just accept that maybe I'm your friend and maybe I care about you?"

_Because you don't know who I really am. You don't know what a demon is really like, do you, Jinx? Even if you know I am partially one, you don't know what that means. And I don't plan to let you know. I have to take care of this. Now. _

But Jinx was persistent. One of her better - or maybe not as good, depending on how you looked at it - traits.

"Please. I can't understand you if you won't let me. I mean, I know we share a lot of stuff, and I get your whole 'outlook on the world' thing, but I still don't know who _you _are. As a person. Or demon, or half demon, whatever."

_I can't. Sorry. You'd be afraid of who I really was. A monster. You have to understand. _

But Jinx's emotions from behind the door practically screamed "ugh, I don't get you Rae."

_What do I do? If she stays there there's no way I'll be able to focus, but I have to do this... I-_

_Do you? _

Raven's eyes narrowed instantly. _So you came out. I thought that-_

_You'd have to force me? Or that something would have to trigger your anger, then I'd come out? I'm a part of you, Raven. I can be here whenever I want. _

_But not whenever I want. Now go away, I have to talk to Jinx-_

_Didn't you **want **to "deal" with me? Didn't you want to not talk to her so that she couldn't discover what demons are really like? You're contradicting yourself. You're just looking for an excuse to escape right now._

_What for?_

_So that you can come talk to me on your own terms. Me coming to you makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it? _

_No, it-_

_I'm inside your head, remember? And right now, there's nobody besides Timid. And Denial-_

_Shut up! _

Raven clutched her head and groaned. She stood up and walked around erratically, as if in a daze. The demon's voice inside her head grew louder and the room around her faded.

_Why do you deny my existence? What part of "I am you" don't you get? You're Raven, yes, and that also means being a half demon. It is who you are. Without me, you wouldn't be Raven, would you?_

_I still have to keep you under control-_

_No you don't! All you're doing is suppressing a part of your mind and it keeps you from being whole! You're fragmented right now, just a bunch of pieces that are waiting to be put together-_

_I don't want to have anything to do with you. Get out of my head before I make you-_

_And how are you going to do that? I'm basically one of your emotions, remember? _

_I'll force you out. _"Azarath metrion-"

_Too bad. Unfortunately for you, we're already inside your head, and this is my domain, not yours. _

_What are you talking about?_

_Open your eyes. _

The room came into focus, only it wasn't a room anymore, but that bleak, crimson skied place that was her mind. And towering far over her was the sanguine cloaked Raven with four eyes glaring at her from underneath the hood. Its wrists were cuffed together by rings of black metal and its ankles were held down by two chains, which presumably bound it to something below her line of sight. Before, Raven might have called it Rage, but this one seemed a little different. For one, Rage's cloak was a bright scarlet, whereas this one was a deep shade of cerise, and for another, it didn't seem like it was in a blind fury or anything, as Rage always seemed to be. But it was still frightening.

Raven turned and found Timid running behind her and clutching the sleeve of her cloak, hiding in her shadow. She turned back to face what she presumed was demon Raven.

_This is **my **mind. I'm in control here. Not you. _

_You control half of it. I control the other half. Two halves of a whole, dear Raven. _

Raven gritted her teeth and moved backward defensively. _I don't want to deal with you. Either leave or I'll fight you. _

_We are evenly matched inside your mind. Fighting would merely destroy you and me both, and wipe you out of existence. But I can understand how my form is making you nervous. Perhaps this will be better? _

The crimson cloaked Raven shrunk down in size until it was only as tall as her. She stepped onto the rocky platform that Raven was on and attempted to move closer, but the chains above her feet held her back. She gave off a noise of irritation before looking up and staring at the blue cloaked Raven, human Raven, who stared back, violet eyes narrowed with distrust.

_What do you want? _Human Raven said finally, breaking the silence.

_I want to be free. Like all your other emotions._

_And why should I let you. You've proven before that you can only destroy things whenever you break free. And you kill people, threaten my friends, break peoples' trust in me-_

_That's because I've been oppressed for twenty years! Can't you understand how frustrated I am with you? _

_I don't care-_

_Yes you do. You're an empath. There's no way you can't understand or care about how I - you- feel. _

_I don't want to-_

_Just do it. Try to feel my emotions. _

Human Raven sighed and shifted a little, signalling Timid to move back. "Azarath metrion zinthos," she said softly, closing her eyes. Demon Raven closed her eyes as well.

And then Raven staggered back with the sheer force of her demon's emotions, a whirling maelstrom so tempestuous that she could not even make out one feeling from the next. It was just a huge jumble of sensations that nearly made her collapse, but demon Raven moved forward quickly and caught her before she could fall down. She cradled human Raven's head in the crook of her arm and stared down until the violet eyes opened slightly.

_Understand now? _

_No. I couldn't make sense of it. _Human Raven blinked a couple times and sat up. She did discover one thing from that, though. Demon Raven wasn't just a huge mass of hate, or rage, or destructive power, but rather another being much like herself. Angrier, moodier, more resentful, but she was quite similar to Raven in many aspects. Just with a lot of Raven's darker traits being yet more prominent in the demon version of herself.

Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself back in her room, only she was slumped against the door and someone was pounding on it. She figured that she must've collapsed while arguing with her demon inside her mind.

"Raven? Raven! What happened?! Open up! Are you okay?"

Raven held her hand to her head, feeling the onset of a huge headache.

"I'm fine," she whispered. "Everything's fine," she said a little more loudly. "Just... leave me alone for a bit."

"Everything's not fine! I could practically feel how scared you were even through the door-"

"Last I checked, I was the empath," Raven replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, but you were mumbling about something and you sounded so afraid, like something was gonna kill you-"

"Well I'm fine. You don't need to worry. Now leave. You're distracting me-"

"From what?"

_From what? _She had to figure out an excuse... "From my meditating. Your emotions are breaking my concentration-"

"You're a bad liar, Raven."

"I've never been told that before."

"So you're basically admitting it-"

"No I'm not. I'm meditating. Go away."

She got an image of Jinx holding her hands on her hips and 'ughing' at the door. That girl could be crazily stubborn once she set her mind to something.

Raven sighed. "Please," she said very softly. "Just... leave me alone."

Jinx sighed as well. She could stand her ground when Raven decided to be stubborn as well, but once the other girl started pleading with her, her resolve crumbled. "Fine. You win. I'll be in my room if you need me."

_Do you really think she cares? _Demon Raven's voice popped in Raven's mind, startling her slightly.

Raven closed her eyes. _Maybe. She just sat outside my door for like, what, an hour? And she was probably worried the whole time, knowing her. _

_Why do you think she likes you so much?_

_I don't know. Maybe because I have to control you and she knows how hard it is to keep control, and whenever you lose control people blame you and call you a monster even though you know you fucked up and you feel bad enough about it already, and it only makes you feel worse. She's a lot like me I suppose._

_Only, you don't have to control me. I could just be another one of your emotions. Well, more of an alter ego, I suppose you could call it._

_What makes you think I can trust you?_

_Well you should. Don't you trust yourself?_

_No._

_Okay then... But maybe you're more willing to accept me now? After all, we've never been able to have a conversation like this before, since you'd always get angry and suppress me._

_I'll admit that you're not as bad as I thought you were. But I still can't-_

_Let me show you a few things. _

And before Raven could reply, she found herself back in her mind. Demon Raven was there as well, standing beside her, still restrained by metal chains. Around them, a huge rocky platform spread out in all directions and the only thing decorating it was what seemed to be a cave with a portal swirling at its entrance. She recognized the place - it had been where Beast Boy and Cyborg had come into her mind and helped her fight Rage off.

After a moment, several of her emoticlones materialized around her, one with a cloak as black as night, another in dark gray, and then several in shades of scarlet and crimson.

_Rage. Hatred. Envy. Frustration. Despair, depression, fear, ambivalence, fright, nervousness, masochism. Sadism. Aggression, destruction. Resentment, grudging. Revenge, scorn, revulsion, malevolence. The sheer number and strength of your darker traits naturally outweighs those of your well, shall we call them, more normal ones. Of which you have a scant few. Happiness, but no joy. No content. Sloth alone. Lust and Love, but no friendship. Bravery, Courage, and Resilience you have in abundance, however. The point is, you need to control yourself much more than you need to control me if you wish to please the humans. Because you are naturally inclined to the more, at least in their eyes, malicious and threatening traits of your personality than the other ones._

_So I'm like you. And even if I don't need to control you, I need to control myself. Because I am my own demon._

_Pretty much._

_I... well... _

Raven knew that most people would think of her as a terrible person as well. Usually appearing to be rude, antisocial, and uncaring, she did not come across as the person you would ever want to meet or associate with. And it was a precious few people who cared to understand why she was the way she was, and even fewer who did understand. (Which actually amounted to none - nobody but herself really understood, mostly because she would not let them.)

So the only way she would be able to fit into human society was to control the darker nature of her personality. She knew that from the start.

And in truth she could not blame everything on her demon. Several times when she had actually tried to kill people, it might have been her demon doing the act, but it had been she who was angry, not only her demon. _Raven _had wanted it as well. She had an appetite for destruction that belied the pacifist teachings of Azarath in which she had grown up, and it was quite nearly a miracle that she was able to control her instincts to the degree that she did. In the end, though, those instincts did not only stem from her demonic side, demon Raven, but also from herself. Her human side, encompassing all her other emotions, because that was just who she was.

And because she actually did care about what other people thought and felt, and for their lives, she controlled that part of her. Gave her "nicer" qualities a bit more power than her other ones to balance things out.

So in the end, was it really her demon who was the problem or was it herself?

_A problem? Perhaps you look at these things from a too human point of view. Even if you find these aspects of yourself... undesirable, they also bring out qualities in you that you do find desirable. Strength of character, empathy, determination._

_Who are you to comfort me? You are, well, not the source of my problems, but part of it at least._

_True. I cannot contest that statement. But maybe you can forgive me for being a problem in the past and allow me to help you become whole now?_

_You said that one of my traits was grudging. Well what if I **do **hold grudges? What if I don't want to forgive you or even believe that you want to help me? Maybe you just want my body for yourself._

_And what good would that do? Do you think that that would satisfy me? Use your empathy. It wouldn't, would it?_

Raven closed her eyes and focused in on demon Raven's thoughts, taking care not to sense too much of her emotions for fear that it would drive her insane. What did her demon even want from her anyway? Was it really freedom? Or compassion? Or what?

The answer she found surprised her.

_You just want me to be comfortable with myself._

_I am you after all. We're two parts of the same being. I want to be content as well. _

_Not happy?_

_Happiness? Too human a concept for me. For you it seems as well. Happiness is for those who dwell in the bright side of things, with their deluded sense of justice and boundless optimism, kindness, belief in other people, saying that mortals as a whole are worth saving and always are redeemable. These fools always miss the other side. The one that you and I belong in._

_Yes yes. I've heard that many times. We're the dark side of things. We don't just get to be happy. It's not something that fits us. That's why it's only comfortable. Because being miserable is something we're used to and comfortable with. Just like those fools are content in their blind happiness. I get it._

_See, you're a lot more like me than you think. We are not so different. That makes sense, considering we are the same._

_Or you could just be manipulating me._

_Or you could just be paranoid. I'll admit that I did go a little... wild when I got free in the past, but I really only have your - our - best interests at heart. Please, give me a chance._

_What do you want me to do? Set you free? What happens if you do betray me and take over my body? **Then** what do I do?_

_Not let it happen in the first place? You can freely read my thoughts and emotions. I don't know why this is so hard for you. It's not like I'd intend to take over your body without you being able to tell._

_Maybe you just want me to think that._

_Listen to yourself, Raven. You're just being stubborn._

Raven sighed, rubbing her temples. Why was she being so stubborn anyway? By now she should've - and secretly did - realize that her demon wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. On the contrary, it actually did only have her best interests at heart, (although her interests were both of their interests as well).

_Fine. _Pause. _Fine, _she repeated. _I'll set you free._

Her demon's eyes widened as the chains around its ankles and wrists dissolved and the collar around her neck disintegrated as well.

_Happy now? Just don't screw up my head. _

Demon Raven grinned. _Well that was unexpected. But thanks. _

Raven grumbled a little under her breath but said nothing out loud. Soon, her mindscape began to fade and she found herself back in her room. Feeling faint, Raven barely managed to make it to her bed before she passed out.

* * *

The man slowly descended from the sky and landed next to a pink haired girl, who was sitting on a park bench, staring down at her hands. He sat next to her but she didn't even turn to look at him.

"Miss Jinx, I presume?" He broke the silence.

She sighed. "What do you want from me, Superman? I haven't gone back to my old criminal ways if that's what you were wondering," she spoke rather sarcastically.

"No, that's actually not what I'm here for. This is important, so I want you to hear me out."

"Not like I'd be able to get away if you wanted to make me stay."

"Please, this is supposed to be voluntary, but you're pretty much my best option at this point."

"For what?"

"I will explain. I hear that you and Raven are good friends?"

Jinx's eyes narrowed. "Who the fuck told you that?"

"A little birdie-"

"Nightwing did, didn't he?"

"It is irrelevant-"

"That son of a-"

"Calm down, Jinx. He only said that you were friends, nothing more."

"He's still a-"

"He's also irrelevant and you can go yell at him later, but I don't have that much time to spend here, so could you please listen?"

"Ugh. Fine. What do you want from me?"

Superman looked at her meaningfully. "I want you to well, to put it bluntly, spy on Raven for the League." He paused and cut her off as her eyes bugged out and she opened her mouth to speak. "I know you probably have your... reservations about doing this, but please hear me out. You know that she is part demon, correct?"

Jinx looked at him furiously. "Yeah, the daughter of Trigon, what about her? She hasn't done anything wrong. She's not a threat to you guys-"

"We don't know that for sure, but right now we're willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and let her do what she likes for the most part. You'll keep in mind that in most cases, a person with her heritage and power is kept under close surveillance until they earn our trust, like Etrigan for example."

"Yeah and she's done a lot of stuff to earn your trust. More than I have."

"I understand, but there is still the matter of this demon attack, which you undoubtedly know is coming from Trigon. And she is his daughter. You can understand why we are nervous, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"I know, you don't think she has anything to do with this, but if she really is innocent, you can show us by doing this."

"But this is just... wrong! I can't betray a friend like this! It's like... what do they always call it on those TV shows... something about the right to privacy, one of those amendments, well you get the idea."

"Actually, I haven't even told you any specifics, have I? All I want you to do is contact the League if she happens to go anywhere weird, like outside Jump, Gotham, or any of the major cities, or if she's meeting any weird cultist groups or other demons. Basically, anything suspicious."

Jinx was silent for a moment. "Well, I don't know..."

"It's for her own protection as well. If she's trying to play the hero, we can always step in to help her. While we might have our doubts about her, we won't just sit back and let an associate of the League go into danger alone."

"Well..."

"You don't trust me? I'm not known for lying and manipulating people you know. That's Batman's specialty."

"I know that, but still."

"It's a way for you to help her, put it this way. If she's really innocent and wants to be a hero. You'd be helping her become one of us again."

"I'm not so sure she wants to be 'one of you', but I guess she wants to be like okay with you guys... well, she just wants to be not looked at as a threat to all humanity and such."

"And you can help her with that."

Jinx was silent again. "I don't know about this... she wouldn't be happy with me if she found out..."

"It would be good for her even if she does not like it."

"How do you know I'll tell you the truth," Jinx said suddenly. "Maybe I'll just lie to you and pretend she hasn't been anywhere or done anything suspicious."

"You don't seem like that type. Batman said I could trust you, and I trust his judgment most of the time." Superman waited for her to respond, but the pink haired girl was silent again, contemplating the proposition. He spoke again. "A word of caution, however. From what I have been told, Raven is a person with many secrets and she is rarely what she seems. Even if you are her friend, she is probably hiding many things from you."

"Well, yeah... but I trust her."

"Just be sure that that trust is not misplaced."

Jinx sighed. _I can't do this. It would be betraying Raven's trust. But like... it would be so good for her too. And besides, what harm can it really do? It's not like she's gone to some weird place and met with weird people and organized any weird stuff anyway. Except for that one time where she went somewhere and didn't tell me where, and I was really worried for her, but... I'm sure she didn't do anything bad there. I guess Superman would want to know about it though. Ehh. Maybe I should tell them if she leaves again. She said she could easily die if she went there... _

The worry began to show on her face. _If she goes again I probably should tell the League to send someone to help her. I don't know what I'd do if she died and I did nothing to help her. I'd be an even worse friend if I did that. _

"You're hiding something from me," Superman said lightly.

"Err..." When pressured, Jinx was a surprisingly bad liar.

Superman raised an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't call it suspicious but... she was in danger."

"So you were worried about her."

"Well yeah, I mean, she could've died. And I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it."

Superman nodded. "I will trust you this time. But next time she goes anywhere, please do tell us. For her safety too."

"Hold on, I never agreed to-"

"You basically just did."

Jinx sighed. "I guess so. Fine. But she's not a bad person. And she's not a threat. Trust me. Please don't hurt her."

"We never intended to do that. Now this is all the time I have to spend here. Keep in touch. League can be contacted through the Titans' computer, or you can simply call Batman. See you around."

Jinx watched as Superman flew off before getting up and walking around the deserted park.

_What have I done? _She stopped beneath a tree with several ravens perched in its branches. They all looked down at her silently as she approached as if they expected something from her. Jinx looked back, enthralled by the dark gazes for a moment. Then she looked away and began shuffling through her knapsack. After a moment, she pulled out a piece of bread and broke it into crumbs, holding her hand out. The ravens approached tentatively and pecked lightly, as if taking care not to hurt her.

Jinx's lips trembled and she withdrew her hand, sitting under the tree and curling into a ball. Putting her head between her legs, she began trembling, not even knowing why she felt so horrible. But there was this sense of immense terror and uncertainty inside her that she simply couldn't deal with. Well, at least not alone. After a moment, the ravens began flocking around her, poking at her skin gently and rubbing against her with their smooth feathers. She looked up in surprise - it was very strange, being comforted by a bunch of birds, ravens no less, but they were very intelligent creatures, not merely the harbingers of doom that they were classically supposed to be. Not quite unlike her own Raven. Now if only she were close enough to her that they could comfort each other, but Raven simply would not open up to her.

Suddenly feeling quite irritated, she got up and shook the ravens off of her before walking aimlessly through the park, not knowing or caring where she was going.

* * *

Raven suddenly sat up and gasped, holding a hand to her head. A moment later, her eyes began glowing a deadly shade of red and her mind went blank from an explosion of fury. She rose up, back arched, arms spread open wide, mouth and eyes emitting a terrible, glowing light, and a moment later she vanished from her room.

A moment later, she reappeared out over the shoreline and collapsed to all fours, gritting her teeth together.

_What the hell is going on? _She sent a message into her mind, hoping that one of her emotions would answer. It felt almost like the immense rage within her was not something she was feeling herself, but rather something that was _there _inside her. She pounded her fist on the ground, sweat pouring down her face from the effort of not going insane from the sheer anger that coursed through her.

_Answer me! Anyone! _She tried calling out to her emotions again but got no response. Raven mustered up her strength and a moment later, a blue cloaked Raven appeared in Nevermore, her mind, and her body collapsed against the ground.

Raven looked around and found an eerie emptiness inside the dark dimension that was her mindscape. Not a single emotion in sight, not even her demon. She walked down the long rock path, past all of her emoticlones' empty domains until suddenly she sensed something rise up behind her. Dodging aside, she barely avoided a huge blast of red energy that cut straight through the rocky platform and nearly sent her flying to the abyss below. She levitated back onto the platform and gasped as she saw an enormous, scarlet cloaked Raven doing battle with a bunch of other Ravens in assorted colors.

_Rage, _she muttered. Or her demon?

The question was answered a moment later as the giant Raven growled savagely and lashed out, sending one of the figures flying towards her. Raven conjured up a shield of dark energy and engulfed it, setting her gently on the rocky platform beside her. A crimson cloaked Raven emerged, four eyes glaring dangerously.

_So you finally made it, _demon Raven grumbled. _I thought I was going to have to use full force to take care of this thing but you wouldn't have approved of that._

_I kind of want to get rid of it actually, _Raven grumbled back, eyes narrowed. _Rage has been a problem for a very long time, but even if she's one of my emotions, she's a strong one. Usually have a hard time beating her, and this time she seems worse than normal. _

_Well do something about her. At this rate we're all going to get smashed to pieces if we don't restrain her._

_Thing about Rage is, the harder you hit her, the angrier and stronger she gets. It's hard to fight her head on. _

_Then what do we do? _Demon Raven hissed, eyes narrowed. _Can't you just take away her power? She's one of your emotions. _

Raven shrugged. _Usually Rage gets strong when I get angry, right? But this time I'm not even mad because of anything. So controlling myself won't do anything to restrain her. _

_Then we do this the hard way, _demon Raven replied spitefully. She had a short temper too.

Rushing toward the giant Raven, demon Raven suddenly grew in size until she was even larger than Rage. The pair growled at each other and battled with blasts of scarlet and crimson energy, neither able to gain the upper hand. Demon Raven ground her sharp teeth together and gestured, filling Rage's mind with images of her worst fears, trying to cow her into submission. Big mistake. Rage was taken aback for only a moment before she howled, angrier than ever, sending red light into the dark skies of Nevermore.

The sparse, sanguine clouds dotting the sky suddenly gathered together and began swirling, forming a huge typhoon in the sky. Lightning raged down from the boiling heavens and struck everywhere, destroying the rocky platform in many places and nearly zapping several of Raven's emoticlones, but Raven managed to raise shields to block them in time. Rage screamed in fury and leapt forward, engaging demon Raven in melee combat. The darker, crimson cloaked one growled back and met her, black claws tearing into the scarlet cloak. Rage drew back, four eyes widening in pain, but then grew even angrier and attacked more ferociously.

Raven flanked Rage as she did battle with demon Raven and sent a powerful blast of black energy at it, but Rage turned just in time to block it. But then demon Raven closed in as Rage was distracted and slashed her face, sending her crashing down to the ground below. Yet that did not deter her at all.

Only getting even angrier, the scarlet cloaked Raven rose up once more. Striking out at both of them in a maelstrom of vengeful energy, she forced all of the emoticlones back at once and then rushed straight for demon Raven. She was sent staggering back, but regained her balance in time to fend off Rage's attacks. Now, however, Rage had grown powerful enough to defend against both of them at once, conjuring a red shield as they both attacked, then countering in the same stroke, sending them flying back. As the other emoticlones rushed in, Rage gestured to the sky with a massive claw, and lightning struck down in a huge torrent of light - Raven's dark shield barely managed to save them all once again, though she was reaching the limit of her power.

Demon Raven hissed angrily, but knew better than to leap in to attack directly. Eyeing Rage warily, she and Raven circled the emotion, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike. It never came.

Rage attacked first, this time going for Raven, who was much less resilient than her demon side. A shield saved her from being crushed instantly, but Rage continued bearing down on her, pinning her to the ground far below. As cracks began to appear in the dark energy, demon Raven attempted to attack but was blocked by Rage's own shield and then thrown back as her own attack was deflected back to hit her.

Raven's powers failed her and Rage smashed a massive claw into her body, nearly knocking her unconscious. Raven felt several ribs break and coughed up a mouthful of blood, but forced Rage back with her powers before collapsing on the ground. Her eyes were barely open, mere slits of violet in the darkness underneath her hood. Demon Raven quickly moved to cover her before Rage could attack again, but fighting alone, she slowly began to lose.

And then suddenly a voice. "Raven? Raven, are you okay?"

Rage's eyes widened. The voice again, then a gentle touch on her shoulder, shaking her body. "Um, Raven?"

Rage shrunk down until she was tiny again, an emoticlone's normal size. The violent energy emanating from her and the fury on her face disappeared - the sharp toothed mouth bared in fury faded into a subdued frown and widened red eyes closed slightly, becoming half lidded. And then Rage simply left, returning to her own domain.

Raven's eyes opened. She sat up instantly, breathing frantically, putting a hand on her ribs to check that her body had not been physically injured by the battle inside her mind.

"Uh, welcome back?"

"Jinx," she muttered. "Saved again."

"You're welcome? What did I even save you from?"

"Never mind," Raven replied quietly. "What are you doing here?"

"I was walking along the shore because-" Jinx stopped in mid sentence. What was she supposed to say now? I'm gonna spy on you for the League to try to make them trust you and to help protect you from danger? And I felt weird about it so I was walking and thinking about it? "Because I felt like it," she finished.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "I don't need to be an empath to tell that you're lying to me."

"Well I guess that means both of us have some secrets then," Jinx retorted. "You never tell me anything."

Raven frowned, not angrily, but rather more thoughtfully. "I suppose that's true. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going back to my room."

The pink haired girl looked surprised. "That's it? No trying to force information out of me or read my mind or anything?"

"Even friends have some secrets that they don't share with each other. You respect my privacy, I respect yours. We're not like lovers, Jinx. We don't tell each other everything."

"But -"

"No buts, Jinx. Not right now. My head hurts like hell, and I don't really feel like passing out right here. If you'll excuse me."

A dark portal closed around her and she vanished into it, presumably returning to her own room. Jinx heaved a sigh.

Didn't the girl know that Jinx was only worrying about her? It wasn't like she was trying to get Raven to spill her innermost secrets and darkest thoughts, she just wanted Raven to relieve some of her stress by sharing it with someone else. Someone who could understand it.

Oh well. Raven was Raven, after all. Didn't stop Jinx from worrying, but it lowered her expectations of her violet haired friend actually opening up. It probably wasn't going to happen for a very long time, if ever, but opening up wasn't something you just expected Raven to randomly do. It was hard being her friend, sometimes, but she was Jinx. She knew she could put up with it because she liked the other girl's companionship.

Not like she had many other friends anyway. She had lost contact with the old HIVE people a long time ago and she and the other Titans were generally only acquainted, not really close or anything. Mainly it had been her and Kid Flash, but he had abandoned her, so it was just Raven. All they had was each other. Hard life, not exactly fulfilling, but it was what it was, and she could deal with it. Hopefully.

* * *

Raven laid on her bed, closing her eyes and breathing in and out evenly, not quite asleep, but feeling very relaxed (at least compared to how she had felt earlier.)

_You there?_

_Yeah, what do you want? _The raspy voice replied, hints of controlled irritation in its voice.

_I was surprised. You're pretty reliable. _

_I don't know why you expected me to betray you. I told you, I want what you want. Rage getting out of control is bad for both of us. And all your other emotions too._

_Speaking of which, how are they doing?_

_Well Timid was probably scarred by the experience, but she's Timid so whatever. Others seem to be fine. _

_And how are you? _

Demon Raven's eyes narrowed. _I've been better. Still pissed at Rage. But I can control myself. Not like I'm going to go destroy her either, that would be bad for me too. And that battle just proved that I can't either..._

_We're not really suited towards fighting her. But we do make a pretty decent team. _

Raven got an image of a toothy smirk. _Maybe that will lessen your doubts of me. Remember what I said about becoming "whole" after you set me free? _

_Yeah, what about it?_

_Reminded me of what that demon queen said. What was her name? Lilith?_

_Yeah. Lady Lilith. She said something about "becoming reconciled with my demon" before my true powers could be explored. Looks like that's happening right now, isn't it._ A statement, not a question.

_We might not be the best of friends exactly, but we're on better terms now. Aren't we? _

_Looking for reassurance?_

_I have my doubts, just as you do. _

Raven was surprised. Demon Raven was more "human" than she had expected. _Yeah. We're better than before, at least. Maybe it's time we visited Lady Lilith. Now that I'm "reconciled" with you._

_I don't see why not. Although that girl will probably worry about you again._

_You mean Jinx? She's always worried about me. Shouldn't surprise you at this point._

_It surprises me that... well, never mind. You'll have to figure out how you feel about you by herself._

Raven raised an eyebrow. _That... has many implications._

_Of course it does. Figure them out._

_And how do you feel about her?_

_I don't know. I'm as unsure of my feelings as you are of yours. I can only say how you feel. I will admit that she is... attractive though._

_Please! _A faint blush spread across Raven's face, and she heard the sound of laughter in her head.

_Such a prude. In time, you might appreciate that side of you. And my... experience._

_What? I've kept you chained up for so many years, and besides, there's not one of my emoticlones who would be willing to - oh._

_Being chained up makes it all the more fun when it's time to play with Lust..._

Raven's blush deepened, but she fought it off.

_Enough about that. I'll leave to see Lilith tomorrow. Better write Jinx a note so she knows where I am. __But for now, sleep calls. _

_Sleep then. I could use some rest too. _

Darkness overcame her and everything faded away into the blissful oblivion of dreamless slumber.

* * *

A/N: I envisioned Raven's demonic side and her general category of emotion called "Rage" as separate entities because while demon Raven often is associated with Rage, Raven doesn't only get angry when she's in demon form. So I figured it would be good to cast them separately - essentially, demon Raven becomes another one of Raven's emoticlones, albeit a more prominent one as we'll see later. (An alter ego of sorts)

Also, Rage managed to beat both Raven and demon Raven at the same time because she is a raw mass of power whereas demon Raven and Raven rely more on playing mind games to beat their enemies. (Yes, I did say before that demon Raven is more raw destructive power than Raven is, but she still relies on mental attacks.) Pretty sure mental attacks wouldn't work on the embodiment of anger.

Demon Raven also has her own emotions, which typically are very similar to Raven's own, only she might seem angrier and moodier at times... just realized, if demon Raven has her own mindscape/emoticlones, then wouldn't it sort of be like Nevermore inside of Raven's Nevermore? Emoticloneception/Mindception or whatever you want to call it. Kind of weird. Anyway...

If I stop slacking, next chapter will be out in a couple of days.


	16. Wings of Premonition

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from DC or related stuffs

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

"Raven."

The girl wheeled woke up as she sensed a presence suddenly appear in the darkness of her room. A presence not altogether unfamiliar to her, not an enemy of hers either. She rubbed her eyes and lay back on her pillows, closing her eyes again.

"I'm tired, can't you leave me alone?"

"You've been fighting with your inner demon. That's our field of expertise."

"Not your business anymore, brother."

Wrath raised an eyebrow. "How isn't it?"

"She has another ally, brother," another presence appeared in the darkness.

"Lust," Raven groaned out. "You've joined Wrath's side."

"And yours, apparently."

"Great. But right now I just want to sleep. It's been a long day. And night."

"We're only here to help-"

"Sure. You're my brothers. Tell that to my other five-"

"They might change their minds in time. But for now, we are not willing to harm you."

"Why? Demons aren't supposed to have a sense of kinship-"

"And I've told you before, demons have their emotions too. We're more like humans than you think we are. Only those like father do not care for kin. The rest of us still have our obligations. And our emotions, irrational though they may be-"

"Fine. You want to protect me just because I'm your sister. Great. But your little fire minions are still destroying my world-"

_The human world, _her inner demon reminded her. _Not entirely your world. _

Raven shook her head. _Just let me talk for now. _

_Relax. I can get rid of them faster than you can. Let me talk to them, then you can go back to sleep. _

Raven sighed and sat up, holding her head. _Fine. _

Within the darkness, her two eyes split into four smaller ones, her normally pale grey skin took on a light shade of crimson, her slightly past shoulder length hair lengthened further and turned white, and her nails became black claws. When she opened her mouth to speak, her mouth was filled with sharp teeth and a forked tongue like a snake's.

"We'll talk later," her voice was a growl, not unlike Raven's own when she was angry. "As you can see _we're _fine."

The other demons gave off no sign of surprise, but their glowing eyes turned toward each other in silent conferral. And then shifted again as another presence appeared in the darkness.

"We were wondering where you went, Lust. You didn't show up for quite some time."

"Envy. What do you want?"

"What is this, some kind of party?" Demon Raven growled at them. "If you have a problem, take it somewhere else. I need some sleep."

"Stay out of our business-"

"Get out of here," she growled aggressively. "Don't think I'm a pushover like my human side is."

_Hey! _

_Shush. _

"Move it, fools, before I make you." Her eyes opened, glowing with power, and though she was still sitting, she seemed to tower above them all. The darkness in the room shifted uncomfortably, as if under Raven's command, like something living pushing down on the other three demons, a force waiting to attack.

"Let's get out of here," Wrath murmured. "Before she really gets mad at us."

Envy nodded uncomfortably, and the three of them left. Raven's demonic features and a moment later, she was back to her normal self.

_How was your first time transforming? That didn't hurt too much, did it?_

_Not my first time._

_First time willingly, then. _

_I feel fine, actually. Although letting you loose hasn't seemed to help that much except for giving me a new set of powers and someone else to talk to. Even if that someone is me. _

_Still having trouble controlling your own anger and stuff, huh. Then all the more reason we should go see that demon queen lady. She probably would be good with this kind of stuff. _

_Yeah. But for now, sleep calls._

* * *

_Jinx. _Raven's thoughts traveled back to the pink haired girl as she donned the blue dress that Lilith had given her. _Why am I thinking about her so much anyway? Is it because she's going to worry about me?_

_She'll do that anyway. Why does it matter to me? It's not like I'm going to change that._

_Because... I don't know. Maybe I care about what she thinks?_

_I care about what a lot of people think. Empath, remember? I care about their feelings too. I want them to be okay. I don't want them to be hurt. She's no different-_

_She is. There's no denying that. Look at how quickly we became friends. She understands me quite well, and even if she has difficulties figuring out my feelings, she actually cares about how I feel. Same can't be said for like, anyone else._

_Except maybe Batman. He cares a lot more than he lets on._

_Indeed, and I think Nightwing and I are getting along better now. But there's something different about Jinx. Something a bit more intimate. _

Raven closed her eyes. _She wants to get to know me better. But my mind is not something she should want to get to know. She needs happiness, affection, all those things that someone more... human would be able to give her. My mind is consumed by either rage or melancholy. Probably comes with being half demon. I can handle it... I hope. But she shouldn't have to share that burden with me. _

_Indeed. She shouldn't, but she knows that I have that burden already. It's not something surprising to her. And for some reason, she wants to share it with me. Maybe so that I don't have to suffer it alone?_

_That wouldn't be fair to her, right? Just watch, she'll get over me eventually. We can still be friends, but nothing more. _

_It's always like that, isn't it? Forever alone. _

_It's just something I'll have to deal with. No matter how hard it is to do. I can't let someone else sacrifice herself for me. Even if I want it._

_Doesn't it matter what I want?_

_I've thought about that for a long time. Companionship? Immortality? Wealth, or power? I already am ageless. I can live forever, just as all demons can. Wealth. Only Greed cares for that. And those petty humans. In the grand scheme of things, such a thing is meaningless. Power? For what purpose. Power is to protect those that I can call friends._

_Jinx._

_And friends? Yes, I know what I want. All I want is for just one other person to stand beside me when I am depressed, to be there to quell my anger, to share my pain so that I might not be so alone. That's the only thing I've ever wanted. But I've thought about it, and it can't be that way. I'm horrible and selfish. It's always been about me. My feelings. My problems with my father, my pain, my anguish. I's time that I care about someone else for once. And if it means staying alone, so be it. I'll have o let her go. _

_She doesn't want that. _

_It's for her own good. No need to make her - as she would say it - miss gloom and doom as well. Friends or not, I can't let her into my mind._

Raven looked through her backpack to check that everything was there. Some clothes, her mirror, some blankets, and a few books. Good enough.

_Jinx. I don't know how long I'll be away, _she wrote a quick note, _but please don't worry. I'll be safe. I promise. I want you to know that I... want you to be happy and safe-_

"No."

_Jinx, I don't know how long I'll be away, but I promise I'll be safe. Tell Nightwing and the others that I had some stuff to do, and please, please, don' get hurt while I'm gone. _

She crumpled the piece of paper up and threw in the trash. Why was writing a simple note so hard? Why couldn't she do it?

She took a deep breath and began projecting her thoughts out instead.

_Jinx. I'm going to be gone for a while. I don't know how long, but please don't worry about me. _

_Raven?_

_Please be safe while I'm away. I - just... don't get hurt. I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise. Goodbye._

_Wait! Raven!-_

Raven opened a portal of freezing cerulean and was gone.

* * *

"Oh my god," Jinx stomped her foot on the ground.

Raven's room was deserted again, and as Jinx began going through the girl's closet, she realized that she had really left - for probably an extended trip.

_She ditched me! Again! What the hell! Why does she do stuff like this?_

Jinx sat on Raven's bed and held her head between her hands.

_Damn Raven. She always makes sacrifices for the rest of us. She risks her life to save our sorry asses and then says it's not a big deal and tells me not to worry about her. Why can't she worry about herself for once? Why's she always gotta be so stubborn? _

"Why can't you just let me take away some of your pain?"

Although, Jinx also knew that she admired the other girl's strength of will. It wasn't everyone who could be depressed or angry pretty much _all the time, _and still remain sane. Well, Raven's sanity was debatable. But still, it was pretty amazing how well Raven bore it. Usually didn't give off a single sign of the turmoil in her tormented soul.

Of course, Jinx also hated Raven for it. Hated in a friendly way, of course, as in she hated the trait, not the person. Standing alone was very good and nice, but everyone, even Raven, needed someone else to lean on sometimes. Just one other person.

Jinx sighed and stood up, moving to leave Raven's room, but then something caught the corner of her eye. One book, jutting out slightly from Raven's normally neat bookshelf, obviously one that she had just been using. Frowning to herself, she walked over to it, then stretched out her hand, but then stopped.

_Is it really my business what she's doing? She said she'd tell me when she got back anyway. I don't have to- But last time she went somewhere, she said she it was dangerous and she could easily die. I can't just let her risk her life like that, can I? _

_I mean, why do you have to worry me so much? And the worst part is, you wouldn't appreciate me prying into "your business" even if you could easily get killed. But don't you know how that would make me feel? You know, don't you? I don't think I could bear the thought of you dying without me being able to do anything. I have to... I have to try to help at least, don't I? Or if I can't, I should call people who can..._

Jinx shook her head. That would be a betrayal of Raven's trust.

Well, would it?

_Just a quick peek. _

She tentatively plucked the book from its place and found a page with a corner slightly bent - probably where Raven had last been reading. Her brows furrowed as she struggled to read the tiny script, detailed information on teleportation coordinates or something like that, and then she dropped the book and gasped, stepping away from it.

"Raven... no..."

_Why? Why would you go to hell? Raven, you know there's nothing but demons there, and most of them would just kill you on sight. And Trigon's there too! What are you thinking?! _

Jinx closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could practically hear Raven's voice inside her head - _I went there last time and came back unharmed, didn't I? - _but that didn't mean she'd be lucky twice in a row!

Okay, maybe she had a good reason for going. But that didn't mean she should go alone...

_Ugh. She always tries to do stuff by herself. No concern for her own safety. _

Jinx sighed again. _What do I do? I thought... I thought I had made up my mind... I thought that maybe getting you help from someone, anyone, not just me would be fine... so why does it feel like I'm selling you out? _

_But in the end, living is still better than dying, isn't it? Even the risk of it... _Jinx put the book back and left Raven's room. Mulling over everything in her mind, she didn't even pay attention to where her feet were taking her until she reached the Tower's common room. The doors slid open and she found it completely deserted - nobody was awake yet. She walked over to the computer and pulled up a list of contact information. And there it was. Justice League - Watchtower, private line.

"Miss Jinx?"

"Superman, I-"

He sensed her discomfort. "Relax. I'll send someone over right now. Don't worry about her."

Jinx murmured a quiet thank you and closed the connection. She closed her eyes and forced back her tears, not knowing why she wanted to cry, only feeling an awful sense that she had betrayed Raven.

* * *

_Ice palace - throne room _

"Lady Lilith, you have a guest."

Atop the high platform of ice, a frozen throne spun around. The light emanating from the ceiling shone more brightly, lighting up the icy crystal walls, sparkling with pale azure light. The demon sitting there frowned slightly, brows furrowed. _What does she want with me? _

"Send her in."

Instantly, in front of her, a swirling portal of deep red and violet hues opened and a figure about her size stepped out. Dark, sanguine hair, almost black, flowed down halfway down her back, two dark eyes opened, glowing with power, surrounded by a face of pale, reddish skin. A hand rose, adorned with white claws and her mouth opened to reveal sharp teeth, unlike Lilith's more human set. Although, past the superficial color differences, their appearances were rather alike, if the other demon was a little more aggressive and violent looking. She had fine facial features, a lithe, slight body - the air of a highborn. As she moved forward, the billowing black robes, not unlike Lilith's thin, almost translucent blue ones, moved about her like a shroud of darkness, as if it were alive. Another natural born demon noble.

"An unceremonious entrance as always, Sonya. Maybe you could use the door next time."

"I don't have the time for that. And besides, I get the feeling that you only want me to do that so you can look down on me, like I was one of the lesser ones. But remember, I'm only one step below you. And in _his _favor."

Lilith laughed softly. "True. Queen of the seventh circle of hell, queen of the darkness, Sonya. I should not look down on you like that. Especially since you're not one of the uncouth ones like Trigon."

Sonya smirked. "He's number four now. Not the weakling he once was anymore."

Lilith shrugged. "Still far below either you or me. Now that I think of it, all of the demon lords nowadays have been a lot weaker than they once were. The stronger ones, closer to our level, don't seem to want to overthrow them and take their own domain of hell."

Sonya looked at her seriously. "The stronger ones are all afraid. They don't want to deal with him either. And there are other nobles stronger than either of us. You know that, right?"

"Not many though. Maybe just a couple."

"But, and even if I'm of his generals, I don't know for sure, I've heard that they serve him. And he's given them powers beyond those that they already have. There's no way to fight him anymore if you can't even fight his servants."

"Brute strength was never my strong point. Although if I wanted to, I could probably train myself to be more powerful than any servant he could ever create."

Sonya laughed dangerously. "You're not giving in to him just yet, are you. But take this warning, and take it well. Don't try to fight us. You won't win. You'd just be destroyed."

Lilith's eyes glimmered darkly. "Maybe you'd like a lesson in what true power is."

"I already have had that." The other demon turned and the black robes around her body dropped away, revealing her bare body. Crimson scars ran down the length of her back, a deeper shade than the pale red of her skin. And as Sonya turned around, Lilith saw many smaller scars all over her torso and abdomen, marring the otherwise flawless skin.

After a moment, she gathered up the robes and was clothed once more. "I learned my lesson the hard way. But you know, I have to agree with him. Why shouldn't we conquer those pitiful mortals and place them under our control? It would be good for them as well as us. We'd restore order to their chaotic world."

Lilith's eyes closed and suddenly a crepuscular void surrounded her, a vast shadow that moved around with a mind of its own as the light above them dimmed. Sonya raised an eyebrow.

"Upset?"

"Maybe a little," Lilith admitted, her voice now a mass of other tones and noises as well. "But I'm not willing to subjugate myself to him so easily. We're demon lords for a reason. We control others, we don't get controlled. If I want to bring order to the chaos of the mortal world, then I'll do it myself."

"I never thought that I'd be able to change your mind," Sonya said softly. "You were always too strong willed to be controlled. I guess we'll just have to see how that will holds up when he comes for you himself.

"He has better things to do than that. He won't come for me unless I openly oppose him."

"If you say so. Your guess is as good as mine."

"I thought you'd know how he thinks, as one of his generals."

Sonya shook her head. "He's a mystery to everyone. The only thing we know is that he's unimaginably powerful. Like a god among gods. Our power is but a candlelight next to the sun that is his strength. I'll leave you with that warning."

Sonya spun around, dark sanguine hair spinning about, and disappeared into a portal.

"Is she gone?"

Lilith nodded. "You can come out."

Raven stepped out from the void surrounding the demon queen and nearly collapsed to the ground in a mass of blue cloth.

"Cold?"

Raven shivered and searched through her backpack for a couple of blankets. "What do you use to even make that stuff anyway?"

"This?" The darkness faded away as if it were a bunch of dark crystals shattering, dissolving into the air. "Miniscule shards of ice that reflect light between them infinitely, preventing it from escaping. You'd see it as a shroud of extremely bright light if you were ten thousand times smaller than you are now."

"Fitting for an ice queen. Although I'm still surprised that you managed to hide my presence from that other demon so quickly."

Lilith looked at her darkly. "I actually wanted to talk to you about her. Come with me."

* * *

"Another demon lady?" A different room this time, maybe a private lounge, one wall an expanse of clear ice showing the frozen landscape outside, the rest opaque, the room lined with plushie chairs and giant stuffed figurines of.

Raven settled into the embrace of a figure that looked somewhat like Jinx - she rationalized it by the fact that the other figures looked like either herself with her hood up or Trigon.

"Yes," Lilith was pacing back and forth, and it wasn't hard to tell that she was bothered. "Sonya, Lady of the world of twilight shadow, demon queen of the seventh circle and the third most powerful demon lord. Behind me."

"So she's strong."

"Well, that's not the issue. She's also one of the king of hell's generals. One of his top ones. She's been... questioning me about my lack of allegiance to him. They all suspect me of wanting to overthrow him, but they also know I dare not do it."

"He's that strong?"

"Well, not just him. There are other demon nobles stronger than I am, and Sonya tells me that they serve him as well. Not just that, it would appear that he has the power to _create _things more powerful than I am as well. Listen, Raven, and listen well, we're not going to be able to stop the invasion of your world by sheer force. No matter what, we will be unable to fight him head on."

Raven thought for a moment. "And what's preventing you from joining him?"

"Because it's not right," Lilith replied instantly. "Not just the fact that he's lording over us demons who are supposed to be the rulers of our own realms. If you ever see him, you'll realize it as well. There's just something wrong about him. If I had to describe it, I'd look at him the same way you used to look at demons."

Raven nodded. "Now that you've put it that way, I get it."

Lilith sighed and put a hand over her face, deep in thought for a moment. Almost as if she were in agonizing pain and barely able to contain it, and maybe she was, but then her hand dropped away and her face was smooth once more.

"Regardless, you haven't come here for a lecture on the demon world's problems. At least, not yet. You've made peace with your demon. Almost."

"Yeah, almost. I was hoping you'd be able to tell me more about demons so that I'd be able to understand my other side."

"Demon culture? It's not something most humans would ever understand, but maybe you would be able to. You understand already that demons by nature are usually one of two things. Either spiteful, fiery, easy to anger, like your father, or cold and distant, melancholic. You seem to have inherited both of these traits."

Raven was silent, but Lilith sensed that she knew it to be true.

"Demons of the higher orders also tend to be loners, which you seem to be as well. Your human side is already more demon than human in nature. So what is there to not understand?"

"Why demons are only concerned with destruction and why they always seem to be tyrants. They're like the dictators of Earth..."

"It seems that many humans have this misconception. Do you see demon society falling apart with chaotic destruction and anarchy? Our world is actually much more orderly than yours is because of the rigid rules we demon lords set for the underlings. Of course, denying them freedom, as you have stated. But realize, to a lesser demon, the very concept of freedom is terrifying. In our immortal lives, if we are granted infinite freedom, we are also granted endless possibility. It is then impossible to make a choice of what to do, impossible to grant our immortal lives purpose or direction. By eliminating that freedom we give the lesser ones a single reason to live, to serve our whims and our desires. Better than no purpose at all."

"That's... an interesting way to look at it. But shouldn't humans have the same problem too?"

"They do, do they not? Most are bound by a direction set for them by human society, and that dictates the direction of their lives. Those that have realized that endless freedom, mostly the artists of your world, could also not handle the endless possibilities and ended up killing themselves. Either because of a lack of purpose in their lives, or because of depression when they recognized that fulfilling those possibilities with a mortal life was impossible."

Raven was silent again and Lilith waited patiently for her to speak.

"My brother," she said slowly, "said something like 'demons and humans are not as different as you think they are'."

"Indeed, we are not. Eliminate your bias and you will see that. You cannot judge all of demonkind simply based on your father."

"As you called him, a lower class demon that managed to rise up."

"Still remains much of the lower class behavior. Few among the nobility are so quick to anger or destroy as he."

They were both silent again. Raven contemplated everything the demon queen had said, the hard facts that she knew, and the fact that she, another demon, was somehow so very different from Trigon.

_You there?_

_Yeah. What do you need me for?_

Raven closed her eyes. _I-I'm sorry. _

She got an image of Demon Raven blinking in surprise. _You apologized? First time I've ever heard that from you-_

_Shut up. _

Demon Raven snickered.

Raven opened her eyes again. "How long can I stay?"

"However long you need to."

Raven nodded and fell silent again, this time her thoughts falling back to her human friend back on Earth. _I'm sorry, Jinx. Looks like I won't be back for a while. _

* * *

"Our sister, Wrath. One of us, only living to serve father's will, not to run amok with those pitiful humans. Why do you insist on disobeying father?"

"Why do you insist on following him? What is so good about Trigon anyway? He only rules us by force."

"That is how it is meant to be. Obey the strong. Let him make the rules."

"And what if we want to?" Lust replied.

Envy glared at him. "Go ahead and try. I, for one, would have no idea what to do if I were in father's position. How do you keep all the lesser ones from fighting each other if you are not even that much stronger than they are? And what do you do with all that time on your hands? Sit around and sleep?"

"Do what father does, I suppose. Go around and use the lesser ones to fight other things. Even each other."

"It seems meaningless."

"Passes the time. We're immortal, brother. We have too much time on our hands. At least with father here, we have something to do. Something we have to do."

"True. But I am tired of following father's rules. He only wishes to destroy things as a way to deal with his rage. He's not like any of the other demon lords at all. Purposeless destruction. "

Envy laughed. "Careful. It almost sounds like you're suggesting we need someone to replace him."

"Exactly," Wrath replied smoothly.

Envy's eyes narrowed. "And none of us is strong enough to do it."

"You only follow him because you envy his power," Lust said suddenly. "I see it in your heart. You think that only those with a certain level of power have the means to live out their lives meaningfully. And by staying near him, maybe that will rub off on you. You do not care for father's methods at all."

"I-" Envy shook his head. "No. No, you're wrong."

"Maybe you just want to deny that you have become reliant on others to give you a purpose to your life rather than to seek one yourself. You act like one of the lesser ones, Envy."

Envy gritted his teeth and glared dangerously at Lust. "Shut your mouth! You are the same as I am!-"

"Indeed we are," Wrath cut him off. "The only difference is that if we are not satisfied with what we have, we seek change. Someone... different to give our lives meaning. If that is the way you want to put it. Of course, there is no need to get so philosophical. I simply do not like Trigon."

Envy turned his glare toward Wrath. "And as I have said over and over, _there is nobody to replace Trigon. _None of us are strong enough. Not you nor I, nor our sister."

"Not yet, she isn't."

Envy paused for a moment before he started laughing maniacally, uncontrollably. Wrath and Lust looked at each other and then looked at him strangely. Envy shook his head, trying to stop, but it wasn't until he ran out of breath, nearly collapsed on the ground, that his fits of laughter ended.

"Sorry, but that was just too funny," he panted out. "Our sister, our _half human_ sister, replace Trigon? You realize that the only way for that to legitimately happen is for her to defeat him in one on one combat. And that's not going to happen, ever."

Wrath smirked. "Demon lords aren't as powerful as you might think."

"Their power is immeasurable by mortal standards, Wrath. And even by our standards he's powerful."

"A demon's power cannot be measured by mortal standards because it warps reality. There is no way to measure that kind of power, at least not for mortals, but it does not affect us immortals the same way. Immeasurable and immeasurably powerful are two different things."

Envy sighed. "I'll concede that point to you. I'd bet that father could still beat all six of us at once, though. Raven only beat a couple of us."

"Her power is growing, Envy," Lust remarked. "Father underestimated her last time too. That's why she was able to beat him."

"Why all the faith in her, anyway? What makes you think that she's capable of doing everything you say she can? Last time we fought her, I sensed that she was an emotional mess."

"She still is," Lust noted dryly. "She just handles it well. And neither of us is suggesting she can do anything. We will simply act as passive bystanders for now. Wait, and see what happens."

"Rather than aid someone you dislike."

"Indeed, not until we have to."

"Until either Pride manages to defeat Trigon, or he manages to destroy her."

"Yes."

Envy snorted. "If that's the way you want to play it. I want no part of it-"

"We're merely giving sister a chance."

"Since when did you start addressing her as 'sister'? You make it seem like she's equal to us, pure blooded demons, when she's just some filthy half mortal."

"Or maybe you're just afraid of the fact that she might be real kin to us instead of that fiend who only pretends to be our father. You're jealous of those with real families and friends, so you're afraid that she won't accept you. And that you'll have to run back to 'father', who will be no comfort at all."

"I'll admit that our sister would be a better alternative to father," Envy said slowly. "But it won't happen."

"And if it does?"

Envy laughed. "Fine, we'll make a bet. I'll play your little game for now. I'll withdraw my division of father's army and I'll do this 'bystanding' thing with you guys. If Pride manages to beat father, I'll admit I was wrong and join your side. And she falls to him, then you promise to give me half of the mortal worlds that father grants to each of you once we conquer this dimension."

"I thought you were Envy, not Greed. Trigon is usually pretty generous with the conquered lands he gives to us."

"Deal or not?"

Wrath and Lust looked at each other. "Fine."

* * *

"Jinx?" Nightwing approached the moping girl tentatively. Quiet for the past couple days, she had avoided all contact with the other Titans and only gave them mournful or disgruntled glares when they tried to approach her.

By now, everyone knew that Raven's name was taboo around her, and though they wanted to know where the violet haired girl had gone, Jinx's bad mood (which ironically mirrored Raven's own usual personality) kept them from asking her.

But then, Nightwing had been around Raven long enough to know how to deal with her, so he figured he might as well try to help Jinx. Not that she was really friends with him or anything - in fact, he thought that she probably hated him for trying to kill Raven. Still, he would try.

"What do you want?" She glared at him, frowning.

"I want to know what's going on between you and Raven. You've been-"

"You wouldn't understand. Just leave me alone."

Nightwing frowned. "You're acting like she would right now. Always trying to keep her problems to herself. Never letting anyone else help. You can tell me."

Jinx's frown only deepened. "And if I wanted to tell anyone, the last person I would tell would be you."

"You're not just friends, are you?" He persisted on, ignoring her last statement.

"And like I said, if I wanted to tell someone, the last person I would tell would be you. And it's not about that either."

"She's bothering you."

"Sort of - you just don't know when to quit, do you?"

"When a member of my team needs help, I won't stop until I'm dead."

"And I'm a member of your team now? Or are you talking about Raven-"

"Both."

"And I should trust you because?"

"Why would I want to play with your emotions?"

"You messed Raven up pretty badly."

"That was in the past."

"Not too long ago. Who says you've changed?"

"Even Raven did."

"Raven could have been mistaken. She sometimes misjudges people..." _Like me. But I'm only trying to help you. Please don't be mad at me if the League shows up... I'm only trying to protect you._

Of course, she knew that Raven would not appreciate anyone else messing with her affairs, especially not the League.

"Jinx - Jinx, hello?"

Nightwing waved a hand in front of the girl's face and she blinked a couple times. Shaking her head slightly, she sat down, feeling dizzy.

"As I said, you're not okay. It's really getting to you, isn't it?"

"What is?" She said slowly.

"Whatever you were brooding about. I've seen both Raven and Batman do it enough. You don't need to be like them-"

"What if I want to be?"

Nightwing frowned at her. "Now you're just trying to be stubborn. Come on, don't be like Raven and shut your friends out of your mind."

Jinx closed her eyes. "Don't tell Raven. Promise?"

"Promise."

She sighed, then looked at him seriously. "First, let's get one thing straight. Raven says we're only friends. And if that's how she wants it, I'm willing to leave it at that. We're _just _friends, got it?"

"Okay, okay. Got it."

"So, _as a friend, _I'm worried about her safety."

"She's in danger?"

Jinx thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I already told the League, so I might as well tell you. She's gone to hell to do... well, whatever she wants to do."

"She what?!"

Jinx nodded. "You heard me right."

"But why?"

"Family business?" The pink haired girl guessed. "Either way, not the nicest of places."

"She could die."

"Easily. That's been on my mind a lot. But what can I do? I can't follow her, I can't convince her not to go, I'm basically useless to her. What if she dies and I did nothing for her at all?"

"You wouldn't be able to live with yourself."

"What kind of friend would I be?"

"But what _can _you do? Raven's got powers beyond the rest of us-"

"So I had to tell the League where she went so that they could send help for her. That way I felt like I did something. But Raven would take that as-"

"A betrayal of trust."

Jinx nodded meekly. "I was thinking about that. It's been bothering me for a while now."

Nightwing laughed softly, reminiscently. "I get where you're coming from. Batman was always worried about my safety so he would often spy on me in the most awkward places. At school, at home, on dates... but he saved my life several times by doing it. I was angry at him for spying on me anyway, but looking back, it was a better alternative to dying. The point is, she might hate you for it, but if it keeps her safe, then you're doing the right thing."

"But I'm not that certain I'm even keeping her safe. What if she doesn't need help and the League only ends up interfering in her stuff?"

"It's the thought that counts."

"It's funny because even though Raven's an empath, things don't work that way with her."

Nightwing nodded. "I know what you're talking about. But she'll come around eventually. She forgave me, didn't she?"

"That's because she didn't expect anything from you to begin with. She almost thought of you as an enemy. She actually thinks I'm a friend."

"She thought of us as friends too. Even though we kind of weren't, and we broke her trust too. But she still forgave me, at least."

"And it only took what, a few years?"

"Just a couple. But Jinx, if you show her that you really care about her, there's no way she can stay mad at you. You've see that in her, haven't you?"

Jinx was silent. _What if she hates me forever? Would I be able to bear that burden for the rest of my life? _

_But what if she doesn't hate me? _

_Ugh. _Jinx shook her head back and forth. _Too many what ifs. Maybe Nightwing will be right. _

_Or maybe he's just trying to comfort me. _

"I wonder how it feels to be friendless..."

"You aren't. We'll be here for you too."

Jinx smiled a little. "Thanks. But I was just wondering what Raven feels like. She doesn't really have anyone for her," she frowned a little. "Unless she's admitted stuff to you-"

"She's an enigma to me too. All I can say is good luck figuring her out."

"I kinda hoped that you could tell me something new about her, but oh well." Jinx paused. "You know, you're pretty easy to talk to when you're not so obsessed with your work. You're not as bad as I thought."

"Yeah," Nightwing looked away, slightly embarrassed. "I became sort of like Batman for a while, didn't I. We all have our bad traits, and I let mine consume me."

_Bad traits, huh? _Jinx's thoughts traveled back to Raven again. _Most people would think she's full of bad traits. But she's really not. The only things really bad about her are her lack of self esteem and the fact that she doesn't care about her own safety. And the fact that she makes me worry. Stupid Raven._

"It seems like one of your bad habits is brooding, Jinx. It's bad for your health."

Jinx blinked a couple times and came out of her thoughts. She sighed. "I picked it up from Raven, I guess. Why are you worrying about me so much anyway?"

"I care about my friends. The same way you care about Raven, I have to make sure you are safe."

"Since when were we friends?"

"Any Titan is a friend of mine."

The pink haired girl put a hand to her chin, then smiled again. "You're a better person than I thought you were. Thanks for talking."

"You're welcome. Just remember, I'm not the hard one to talk to. Raven is. I wish you luck with her."

Jinx laughed nervously.

* * *

"Bruce, I wanted your opinion-"

"No."

"Do you even know what I was going to ask you?"

"Yes."

Superman crossed his arms. "Then you know why most of us think that-"

"I know. I also know that you're mistaken about her."

"Look, Bruce, I know that you like the girl and she's a lot like you, but we don't know if she's trustworthy or not. We're willing to give her a chance, but we need to keep her under close watch for now. Just for a little bit."

"And you'll do it with or without my agreement. I get it. If you want to do it, fine. I'm outvoted."

"But it would not be right without you backing it, Batman," J'onn came up behind them. "On Mars we usually waited for unanimous agreement before we did anything like this."

"I'm probably not the only one who thinks that Raven isn't a problem. Flash-"

"Here," the red costumed man suddenly entered the conversation. Batman glared at him and he grinned sheepishly. "Sorry Bats. But you're right, we don't need to do anything drastic right now. Deal with Darkseid first, demons later."

"Darkseid or no Darkseid, all I want to do is bring her here for a couple weeks and monitor her actions. We'll put her in one of the League rooms with someone else and-"

"She wouldn't agree to it," Batman grumbled. "Same thing as putting me in a room with Flash for two weeks."

"Yikes."

Superman frowned. "So she's a difficult one like you, eh?"

"Like me?-"

"Nevermind. Basically you're saying she won't want to do it and we'd have to force her to."

"Yes. So unless you're willing to knock her unconscious and drag her here, then keep her subdued for a couple weeks, then I guess it won't happen."

"Well then we'll have to."

"Superman-"

"I won't have any arguments, Wally. The rest of us have already said that she needs to be watched somehow, and letting her run free in Jump is too difficult for us to monitor her effectively."

"Perhaps she could be convinced," J'onn offered. "I do not doubt that she would not resist if she knew we were going to force her here-"

"She would resist. She's a fighter."

"Then let her fight," Hawkgirl's voice came from behind them. "She'll know what my mace feels like then."

"It will be her own fault if she tries to resist us. She has the opportunity to come with us peacefully. We're not out to get her."

"Okay, Clark, let's say someone randomly goes up to you in Metropolis and tells you to come with them somewhere strange for two weeks so that they can watch your every action to determine if you're a threat. Would you want to do it?"

"I - well, that's not a fair question-"

"Yes or no?"

Superman sighed. "No, I wouldn't. But she knows who we are and she knows she's viewed as a threat. If she's really innocent, well, she might not like it, but she might be more willing to subject herself to our tests."

"And I'm telling you she's already clean."

"She might have fooled you, Bruce. Like I've told you before, you have no immunity to magic or any type of demon power, which she is probably well verse in. She easily could have messed with your mind without you even realizing it."

"Then explain to me why she has been fighting demons with the Titans for the past couple weeks."

"Maybe it's a ploy. To gain their trust and ours-"

"Listen to yourself, Clark. You know that's not true."

"Whatever the case, my opinion is set. As are most of the rest of ours. I just wanted to do this with your agreement."

"Hey, don't I matter?"

"Err yeah. And Flash's agreement."

Flash shrugged. "Well, as long as you don't do anything horrible, should be okay I guess. Still better to let her go, but no need to get into a big argument about it."

"And Batman?"

"No. You guys clearly don't know when you've lost the argument because you're too stubborn to see a demon as anything but evil. If you're going to do this, fine, but not with my blessing," and the dark knight wheeled around and left.

The rest of them looked at each other for a moment before looking away awkwardly and leaving.

* * *

"Again."

Raven panted for breath and got off the ground, turning to face Lilith. A black shield rose around her and a moment later, blue energy blasted from the demon queen's hands, hitting the shield and dispersing around it in a maelstrom of freezing power. And again, Raven lasted only a couple seconds before her shield collapsed and she was sent flying back to land heavily against a wall.

"Not too bad. You managed to hold on another second that time. Impressive, considering I wasn't holding back."

Raven propped herself against the wall and lowered her hood. After breathing rapidly for a few minutes, she managed to catch her breath and speak.

"I... thought you said that... demons weren't supposed... to be based on raw power-"

"No, but you need a certain level of pure power to be able to do anything. Right now you are too weak, so we have to train that. That sort of raw power is gained through practice."

Raven sighed. "I don't know if my body can take that sort of beating again... you're too strong. It almost felt like I was getting torn apart even through my shield. But when it actually hit me, everything went numb."

"You'll manage. It feels worse than it actually is. Here." Lilith held out a cup of steaming liquid to the girl. "Drink up. It'll help you regain your strength."

Raven sipped at the hot liquid, sniffing at the pleasing aroma. She was quiet for a couple minutes, slowly catching her breath, recovering from the demon queen's attacks.

"You appear to be thinking about something."

Raven nodded. "I was just wondering what you can do once you gain the level of strength required. I remember something about demons being able to manipulate reality or something like that."

"The core of a demon's power lies in two different aspects. Manipulating what is real, often by altering time in some form, and manipulating what is real to the mind, or, the senses and one's inner personality. You seem to have a lot of experience in the latter."

"Yeah. If it's a tough fight, I can usually win by getting into my opponent's head and taking him down that way."

"Though, you'll find that it may be more difficult against more powerful opponents. If you're not careful, it may backfire on you. That is, in part, what the raw power is necessary for."

"And the other type?"

"It is difficult to manipulate actual reality in any form. Time is more easily altered than space, which is why it is distorted more often by our powers, but you will find that it will not work so well against people who are ageless, like demons, for example, as they have no concept of being limited by time."

"Manipulating the fabric of reality - space time. Sounds like physics."

"A human subject, I presume?"

"Yeah, though it's a bit confusing. They say that space and time are intertwined and that things with a lot of matter, or lots of stuff crammed into a little space, can also interfere with time. There's a lot more to it but I doubt it's relevant."

"I am not well versed in human lore, but they seem to be correct at least in that space and time are intertwined. You can think of it like a net with interlocking fibers. One type of strand is more flexible than the other - that is time. The other one is space. By extending out your soulself, you can sense and bend the net, although bending space will require more force."

"That makes sense. But then, if my father could change reality so easily, why was it so hard for him to simply eradicate the Titans by altering their reality?"

"The more - matter, I think you called it? - well, the more of something you have compacted in a small space, the closer the fibers in the net become. And if the fibers become denser, they become harder to move. The same goes for energy as well. If you pack a lot of energy into a small space, it becomes harder to change that reality."

"So my powers protected them..."

"Yes. Trigon was able to change Earth so easily because although its overall energy is great, it is sparsely distributed. Yours was packed into the tiny space of a human body, and as such, he could not bend it."

Raven frowned and thought for a moment. She had taken a physics class where they had talked about mass-energy or something like that, mass and energy being related in that they were all particles and could be transformed into each other under certain circumstances, so space could really be altered by energy even though it technically was "mass." Well, too sciency of an explanation for her. All she needed to know was that it worked.

"You have done it before, many times I presume. Any form of telekinesis is manipulating reality. Of course, not to the extent of a demon lord's power, but you get my point. It is merely a matter of increasing those powers."

"So in other words, harsh training."

"I knew you were a sharp one. You might not like it now, but push your body to its limits and you will gain strength. Faster than you think."

"Ugh, let's just get this over with."

Raven got up again and faced the demon queen, raising a shield of black energy around her, a determined look on her face. This time, as Lilith's blast of icy blue hit her shield, Raven held firm and tried desperately to resist. It was like trying to block a truck with her bare hands, but she still managed to do it for about ten seconds before her shield gave way and she was forced to duck aside to dodge.

Raven panted, trying to catch her breath, but then looked up and gasped as another powerful blast of glacial power came thundering toward her. She raised a shield barely in time and funneled all over her power into blocking, pushing her body to its very limits to stop it. And again, after a few moments, the shield broke and she slid aside. And then another blast.

"You don't get breaks in real fights, Pride," Lilith spoke smoothly - apparently, she was not exerting much effort at all.

Raven did not even have time to reply as she ducked between the beams of ice from the demon queen. _Can't keep this up much longer. _She bit her lip and moved aside once more, this time foregoing the shield and counterattacking instead.

Without so much as even blinking, Lilith batted the dark energy away with the back of her hand and laughed softly.

"That was unexpected."

"I had to try something that would actually work," Raven gasped out, hunched over on all fours on the ground. "Ugh, my body is really going to give out at this rate."

"We'll need to work on that a little, but I have something more important to teach you for now. You remember what I told you the first time you came here, right?"

Raven sat back. "King of hell and we need to contact the other demon lords, right?"

"Indeed. Are you feeling up to the challenge?"

"Uh, well..." Raven put a hand to her chin.

"Afraid that you are still too weak?"

"Sort of. I'm just scared that I'll get caught in the act. Then you'd be doomed and Earth would be doomed too."

_The pink haired girl was right. She never worries about herself. _Lilith closed her eyes. _Although, I probably should not let her know that I have been spying on them... _

"So I need to teach you a few things. How to conceal your presence, first, and how to wield silent magic. Stuff that doesn't leave a residue and is difficult to detect. Since you already seem to be able to sense other things very well, it would be a moot point to tell you how to do that."

"Err- how well will that work? I mean, I was even able to sense you when you projected yourself into the human world."

"That is because I wanted you to find me. If you will allow... a little demonstration."

Lilith breathed deeply a couple times and suddenly vanished. Raven blinked. Extending her soulself, she took in all of her surroundings, the icy walls, residue left by Lilith's powers, her own, much weaker energy, then further out to the demons wandering the halls of the palace, then even further out, and-

Lilith tapped her on the shoulder. "Right behind you."

Raven turned around but saw nothing but a wide expanse of blue.

"Invisible too," she muttered.

"A light trick. Ice crystals manipulated to mimic my surroundings perfectly. If you reach out and try, you can still touch me."

Raven stretched out a hand and met Lilith's own, and suddenly the illusion shattered, revealing the demon queen standing in front of her.

"As for the other hiding your presence trick, you'll learn how."

"Sounds I have a lot to learn."

The blue lady nodded. "So let's not waste any time. Have you recovered yet?"

Raven sighed. "No, but whatever. Let's go another round."

* * *

"Generals," Darkseid looked at the men-like creatures standing before him. "Is the army prepared?"

"Soon, sir. Several ships have yet to be loaded."

Darkseid nodded. "See to it that we are not delayed because of a few stragglers. You, go." He pointed at one of them, who promptly saluted and left. He turned back to the rest of them. "And the boom tubes are set to Earth?"

"Yes sir. The mothership is prepared for your boarding as well. The furies await your arrival."

"And the demon girl?"

"We- we have been unable to lock onto her energy signature. It would appear that she is no longer on Earth-"

Darkseid glared at them dangerously.

"B-but sir, do not fear. If we attack she is sure to return to-"

"That doesn't matter. I have a score to settle with Superman anyway."

Darkseid walked out onto the balcony and looked up into the sky, where perhaps a thousand ships or even more were floating in the sky. He turned his gaze onto the few that were still on the ground, with one of his generals forcing Doomsday clones to hurry into them. Perhaps a hundred or so seemed to fit into each ship before the doors closed and the construction lifted off the ground.

"It is time. I grow impatient. The others can catch up later. For now, we will leave."

Darkseid turned and walked toward a particularly large craft, his generals following close behind. As it lifted off the ground, a large portal appeared in the sky, an image of Earth not too far off in the distance. The fleet of ships entered it and disappeared, reappearing moments later slightly past Neptune, drifting slowly toward Earth.

Darkseid frowned. _A slight miscalculation. We should have arrived directly at Earth. But, no matter. They are all doomed no matter what they do._


	17. Wings of Ruin

Disclaimer: Anything from DC is not mine.

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

_Palace of shadows - throne room _

A vast room of nothing but murky shadows, void without bound, reigning darkness. A pair of eyes opened, almost as black as their surroundings, but there was a gleam to them that made them discernible in the gloom. The light spread a little and revealed a female face, reddish skin, dark crimson hair, a mouth of pointed teeth - she might have been pretty, if she didn't look so hostile. Like she was better than everyone else, an air of cruelty about her as well.

A pair of hands came up, the black claws cradling a ball of bluish light, and Sonya stared into it. Swirling energies became visible and after a moment, a world of ice became visible.

_The master said you were up to something, Lilith. We'll just have to see if he was right. _

The ice faded and instead she saw the energy flowing through the ice realm, little pinpricks of sapphire, the lesser demons, and then lines of azure leading to a larger central mass that appeared as a hive of swirling blue lights. And then an enormous mass of indigo - Lilith's power, obscuring almost everything else in its range. Rather, almost obscuring everything else. There was a slight irregularity.

Sonya frowned and focused in closer. Within the murky indigo, there was a ball of something else.

Zooming in closer.

Now she could see it more clearly. An opalescent sphere of energy that seemed to be growing slightly, but any singular energy source growing at that rate was alarming enough already.

Sonya's eyes widened as there was a sudden jump in the sphere's growth.

_Some sort of... weapon? What could it be? I've never seen this sort of energy signature before. But judging by its growth, it couldn't be. It seems like it should probably be... I don't know, some sort of new demon fledgling? A mixture of demon energies could produce that shifting color. _

She switched back to the view of the world itself rather than its energies and found it cloaked in black, obscuring her vision. Lilith's preset defenses against unwelcome visitors. Of course, she had set it to simply hold out someone of the lesser demons' caliber, to keep them from accidentally entering her realm, but not to block out another demon lord. Sonya took a deep breath and simply phased through, leaving not a trace of her own power as she passed by. Wouldn't want Lilith to detect her, would she?

And now the ice palace was in view, with a bunch of blue demons scurrying about, doing whatever they needed to do, but they were not of her concern. A dark spirit, invisible flying through the rooms, and then she found several that were barred to her, sealed away.

_Hmm. I could still break through, but then there would be a chance that she would notice me. Should I risk it?_

**_Yes. Go through. _**

A voice suddenly appeared in her mind and she nearly lost focus, startled.

_Very well, Lord._

She worked at the seals and untied them, phasing through the doors, then retying the seals behind her. She felt the presence in her mind leave - apparently, he had other things he had to attend to - and breathed a little easier, focusing better on her task at hand.

Flying through the icy labyrinth, then detecting the opalescent energy draw nearer. Phasing through wall after wall, and then there it was.

_So it was the half human girl. Trigon's daughter. Lilith found her after all. I had not imagined that she could become as powerful as she is now. Leave her be and she could become a threat... well, probably not. No matter how much power Trigon gave her, she could never match Lilith or me, let alone the master's subordinates or he himself. What is she thinking? _

Suddenly, the violet haired girl looked up and frowned, staring intently at the spot where Sonya's projection was staring at her from.

_She can sense me? Perhaps she is stronger than I thought._

Sonya withdrew her mind from the orb of blue light and returned to the room of darkness. _Still, Pride cannot possibly be a threat to us. So either Lilith is going insane, or she really does not mean to defy the master. Although why she would seek the company of a half human girl is beyond me. For now, I will not bother the king with this and simply monitor her. _

The orb of light faded and everything returned to an infinite, unbroken void.

* * *

_Inferno_

_A week since I have come here. I have learned and grown so much, yet I still feel so weak. Is it the fact that I am in my father's realm once again? Or do I simply hate this place?_

Raven looked up at the boiling, sanguine skies lit with flares of equally red lightning, the tremendous gale storming through the clouds, whirling about as if in tempestuous rage, fervent and forceful.

All about her the ground was cast in a rusty, burnt color, scorched clean of all vegetation, seemingly barren, although upon focusing her energy into herself, Raven could sense many countless sparks of energy dotting an underground cave complex beneath her. When she looked more closely, she could see the openings to the surface and even several red skinned bodies emerge and run off somewhere else.

But that wasn't what she was here for. Turning, her cloak whirled about her in a dark shroud as she disappeared from view.

She had picked up on that trick rather quickly - being invisible was merely a matter of warping a very thin layer of reality around one's body to imitate the surroundings. It didn't take much power to do something like that, just a focused mind.

The other thing, though, hiding her energy so that her presence could not be detected, that had been harder and she honestly had not mastered it yet. That was more of a matter of inner self control, not letting any disturbance leak out from her being, no matter how disturbed her mental state was. Though she might have been an ice queen among humans, Raven still wasn't considered stoic among demons.

But, it would have to do for now. If she got detected before she was ready, oh well. A fight it would have to be then.

_Still, fighting these weaklings probably won't be tough. _Raven looked down at a fissure in the ground where, far below, a river of magma flowed smoothly through the rock. Up ahead, there were several more, larger fissures, and she recognized it as the home to the lava demons that her father had used when he came to Earth. Not very powerful creatures, despite their imposing appearance.

She phased down and landed on a rocky ledge staring down at the magma.

_This is where Robin-Nightwing rescued me. He told me to have hope that we could save the world and that my life would turn out fine. That everything would be wonderful and happy. _

Raven smirked a little. _We were all naïve back then. What a fool I was. And still am. The only difference between me then and me now is I have nobody to come save me. I have to press on alone. _

She sighed. _I try not to hope for the best and I know happiness is beyond me. Hope breeding despair, happiness something impossible to achieve. My own weakness made obvious before me, powerless to protect the things I wish to, helpless before the gods of this world and others. Within the dark confines of this chasm, how can I continue fighting?_

A long pause.

_But I have to. There is no choice in the matter. I cannot sit here and complain. _

Raven rose up and continued on through the red plains. As she drifted silently toward a shadowy tower in the distance, a wind began to blow about her, veiling everything in a layer of dust. As it picked up pace, Raven was forced to throw up a sphere of black energy to block it out. Soon, the friction between the air and particles was great enough to create fire, a great inferno whirling about, searing away everything in its path.

_Stay calm, _she told herself. _Just natural forces at work. Besides, nothing in this place but Trigon himself could get through this storm unharmed without me being able to sense it. Just don't be nervous. Being scared isn't useful._

Although it was perfectly natural for her to be frightened. Going back to her father's realm where everything would be hostile to her and she would most likely be attacked on sight... it wasn't just that that frightened her. her own emotions would be thrown askew by seeing her father again and she had no idea how she would react. Especially with Demon Raven loose. Much a she didn't care about her own life, she didn't want to live with her emotions completely unchecked, like an insane woman. But how was she supposed to keep herself under control in front of him?

She gritted her teeth. _I have to do it. I have to do it. I must do it. If not for myself, then for Earth. And if not for humans, then for Jinx. And Nightwing, and Batman. As long as my friends can be safe, I'll do anything. _

_Do what?_ That was a good question.

_First things first. My brothers. I must convince them to stop following Trigon and if not help me, then at least do nothing. And I have to show my father that I'm not weak like I once was. One problem at a time. After that I can worry about the other demon lords._

_The binds restraining Trigon also prevent you from attacking him. How will you show your power?_

_I'll strengthen them. As long as it looks impressive, nobody will care. _

_If you say so. _

* * *

A pale shadow emerging from nothingness in front of an enormous black gate, a figure slight and slender like a woman - because it was indeed a woman - so small that it was difficult to see in the whirling firestorm about it. But as it drew closer, the demons atop the gate noticed the power in its presence and looked at each other, slightly nervous.

"Halt! What is your business here?"

_Switch out with me. I'll be a bit more... intimidating than you are._

The figure bent its head and four red eyes opened from underneath the hood.

"I'm one of you. Isn't that obvious?" The voice rasped out, still obviously feminine, but with an edgy growl to it.

The demons atop the black metal wall looked at each other in surprise once again. It was not every day that they saw a female demon - those numbered few in Trigon's realm, since he had so kindly killed most of them in a show of power.

There were still some remaining, but none of any power. They had all been s"lain first.

"Who are you?"

"You don't want to know. Let me through."

The demons glared down at her. "Just tell us what you're here for-"

"You're testing my patience. Let me through before I force you to."

A laugh in response. "You may be strong, but there's no way you can get through this gate by force. Not even Wrath would be able to."

Demon Raven smirked, revealing some of her sharp teeth. "Then I suppose I'll have to show you how wrong you are."

Her arms rose and an enormous rising torrent of black energy engulfed the gate and the demons nearby, a cylinder nearly as large as the building behind it, filled with terrifying power. Within, reality was disintegrated into dust as Demon Raven's soulself tore apart the fabric lacing it together. As the black faded, there was nothing left but a gaping, airless void that quickly filled up as the firestorm surrounding her diffused into the gap in reality.

As the fissure closed, several figures came running out of the giant, dark tower-like building and she showed no mercy again, massive blasts of dark energy vaporizing them completely. Then, wheeling around, Demon Raven's eyes narrowed as three other demons appeared out of portals of red.

"Greed, Sloth, and Gluttony. Fancy meeting you here."

"Pride," Greed growled at her. "Do you know what you have just done?"

"I'm well aware. Father must be _quite _upset."

"You're only giving us more reason to kill you," he snarled.

"As if you weren't going to do that on sight anyway. Regardless," and she drifted forward menacingly. "Do you think you can actually fight _me?_"

Greed laughed. "Strong as you have become, I doubt you could beat the three of us."

"A fight it is, then. Unless," Demon Raven looked at the three of them darkly. "Let me ask you something. Why do you serve Trigon when he has clearly proven to be a worthless and useless leader? Why do you subject yourselves to his rules when it brings you nothing but trouble?"

"Because he is the strongest, you fool. We cannot beat him. And neither can you. And besides, he has given us a chance to crush those puny humans. I see nothing wrong with that."

"Although it is troublesome," Sloth said lightly. "I would rather sit here and do nothing. There is nothing wrong with that either. But it is as father commands."

Demon Raven laughed. "And you, Gluttony? I suppose humans are not food that please your palate."

"I hunger for many things, Pride. Strange foods are not one of them. Power, however, is."

"You sound like Greed. Obsessed with power in all its forms, submitting to those stronger than you, the ones you know you cannot overcome. You never try to fight those impossible battles that you know you should and instead, you subjugate yourselves to a tyrant. Wonderful willpower you have there."

Greed's eyes narrowed. "I would not have expected such an illogical comment from you. An impossible fight is an impossible fight. He is there, and we are here. If we cannot defeat him, we can join him. And the rewards of fighting for Trigon are not bad either."

"Can you say that you enjoy it?"

Greed laughed. "That doesn't matter. Do it, or be destroyed."

Demon Raven's eyes narrowed. "And that is why I call you weak." She turned. "Sloth, if given the chance, would you forsake Trigon and follow me?"

"If you are strong enough to defy him. I don't see a problem with it."

Greed hissed. "You were always too complacent. Gluttony and I-"

"If she proves powerful enough, why would it be a problem?"

"Because she isn't going to be! And as if we would subjugate ourselves to the likes of... of a female!"

Demon Raven growled and suddenly, the storming clouds overhead began swirling faster than ever, dark energy within them brewing up in a massive sphere.

"I don't remember that being a problem. Female demons have typically had the stronger members of demonkind among them," she whispered dangerously. "Perhaps I shall demonstrate this power to you?"

"Go ahead," Greed shrugged.

A wicked light emanated from her crimson eyes and suddenly, the sky seemed to implode, lightning and dark beams of energy flying everywhere, striking the land all around them, leaving massive craters, scorching away everything in their path. The beams then converged on the tower where Trigon was and blasted it to smithereens as well, leaving nothing but the throne and the prison of white light surrounding the demon in its wake. As a raging maelstrom of energy, it continued radiating power, obliterating mountains, scarring the entire landscape, ravaging everything until it finally ran out of energy and the sky became calm once more.

"What the-" Trigon's voice boomed out.

Demon Raven smirked. "Hello father."

"You dare show your face before me once more?! Foolish daughter, your idiocy will be your undoing."

"As if you could do anything to hurt me in that state."

Trigon laughed curtly. "You had best not underestimate me."

Raven's demon features faded and suddenly, she was back to her normal human self. As Trigon snarled and sent forth several beams of red light from his eyes, she raised a shield to block them, then retaliated with streams of pure, white energy, engulfing her father's body and remaining there, adding to the energy already imprisoning him.

Trigon's eyes widened. "Since when did you become-"

"Let's just say you're pathetic compared to the one that I've had to fight. You might be a demon lord and still stronger than me, but a word of warning. Watch out. It won't be long before I overtake you," Raven hissed at him.

Trigon's eyes narrowed and he attacked again, without warning. This time, Raven's shield didn't manage to block the attack completely and she was forced back, staggering under the power of her father's spell. And again he struck out, and then once more and she was brought to her knees. But then, gritting her teeth, she caught the next blast mid air and struggled with it for a moment before sending it flying back into her father's face, causing him to roar in pain.

"I'm no fool, Trigon," her voice was quiet, laced with venom. "I won't fight you now, not yet. But mark my words, you'll find that not everything goes your way in the future."

Raising her arms, she sent out one last beam of pure white light and completed the shell surrounding her father, encasing him in a cocoon of silvery energy, completely shutting him off from the outside world. She fell to her hands and knees again, exhausted.

She looked over her shoulder suspiciously at her brothers. "Not attacking me?"

"You're strong, I'll give you that," Gluttony said slowly. "Though your powers are still not at his level."

"Not yet. But he isn't even the biggest threat to me right now. There are more pressing issues."

The three of them looked at her in surprise. "Like what? I thought father was your worst enemy."

Raven frowned. "There are other demon lord-"

_Wait. They might not know about the king of hell yet. Trigon might not have told them._

_Why wouldn't he have?_

_I don't know. Maybe this demon lord of the ninth circle doesn't want many others to know about him? There is security in secrecy._

_Makes sense. _

Raven took a deep breath and started again. "There are other demon lords stronger than him. Obviously they're going to be issues."

"You're not telling us something."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that I was supposed to give my enemies information for free. Allies, maybe. But right now you're still against me, aren't you?"

"What would you have us do. Defy father and let him destroy us?"

"In that state," Raven pointed back at the huge mass of glowing energy behind her, "he can't do anything. I might not be able to fight him head on or destroy him, but I can certainly restrain him. Now, are you with me, or against him?"

"I have no wish to fight. Fighting takes too much energy," Sloth murmured. "But I will not fight for you either. Not yet."

Raven nodded curtly. "Fair enough. And you two?"

"You have shown that you have some measure of power. But let me pose a question to you too. If we fight for you, what's in it for us?"

"Nothing," Raven admitted. "I'm not one to go out and conquer other realms and mortals and claim their lands as my own. If that's what you really want, then go fight for Trigon. But tell me, what are you going to do with all that stuff once you get it? Lord over a barren wasteland? You know that Trigon doesn't leave anything alive once he's done with a mortal world. They are always razed."

Gluttony thought for a moment. "But still more than you could offer us. Something is better than nothing."

"And what is it that you want most? Land, slaves, power? Or maybe something a little more... obscure than that."

"Everything," Greed grimaced. "Makes sense, considering I'm the embodiment of greed. Look here, Pride. Even if Sloth is willing to not fight you, Gluttony and I still have reasons to fight for Trigon. He's willing to give us stuff and you have nothing."

"He also treats you like trash."

"Besides the point."

Raven's voice suddenly dropped to a whisper. "I don't think so. I think both of you are looking for something more than meaningless destruction and a bunch of slaves to serve your every whim. Certainly that would not make you feel fulfilled or happy to any extent."

"And only humans are obsessed with that thing called happiness. You know it too. We are demons. Pain is a part of our being."

"And we also live to lessen that pain. With others who can share it, not simply tell us to bear it and continue wreaking havoc on others as a means to let it out. Because destroying everything else does not lessen that agony at all. You know that too."

Greed bared his teeth. "Nonsense. Shut up before-"

"She has a point," Gluttony put a hand out, stopping Greed before he could leap forward. "I do not know if she is right, but there is something we are seeking beyond what Trigon tells us to do. Perhaps we should try to find it for ourselves rather than let him tell us what we should do. Stop being so reliant on him."

"Brother, you too?"

"But," Gluttony turned back to Raven. "You have nothing to offer us yet. I will not fight for you or against you, sister."

Raven nodded. "Fine. And you, Greed? Will you continue fighting me and the moral heroes alone?"

The demon seemed to struggle with himself. One part of him felt like it was wrong to listen to the words of a petty human or to concede anything to a _mortal _at all, but another part of him knew that one, she was partially right, and two, he could not possibly fight her alone.

But he also could not face the fact that she, a pitiful half human female was stronger than the rest of them.

Turning away, he disappeared in a portal of red. Raven smirked - she had sensed his discomfort, and knew that he probably would leave her alone as well.

_So, if Wrath and Lust manage to convince Envy to stop sending his army up to attack, then Trigon's invasion of Earth will be halted completely. All that's left to do is to get strong enough to beat him myself. And then deal with the others..._

* * *

_Watchtower _

"Yes, Miss Jinx. Yes, I sent someone five days ago. No, we can't track her or follow her. No, we have our hands full at the moment. What are we going to do with her? I'm sorry, I can't tell you at the moment - I've got to go. Sorry - really have to go. Bye."

Superman hung up the phone and sighed.

"Problem?" Hawkgirl put a hand on his shoulder.

"That Jinx girl has been calling me nine times a day for the past five days about her friend."

"The demon girl? I thought we already said that we'd bring her here."

"We did, but I can't tell her that. Right now she's just worried that her friend's in danger."

"Makes sense, she went to hell after all. But you know we can't deal with that now. Radar picked up on a fleet of ships a while ago. Can't be anyone other than Darkseid."

"We knew he was close already, just not how close. I sent J'onn down to deal with the Raven issue - the Titans can't complain about that. He'll contact us when she resurfaces. Hope to God it's before Darkseid gets here."

"Don't bet on it," Batman grumbled from behind them and both of them jumped. How he managed to sneak up on people with superhearing and supernatural senses was beyond them. "Estimate's done. As long as those ships maintain their speed, they'll be here in 17 hours, give or take a few minutes. I don't know what your problem is with Raven, but right now we can't afford to deal with her. You have to pull J'onn back up here so he can fight with us."

"We can do that any time," Hawkgirl replied. "Leave him there for now. Teleporters are instantaneous, aren't they?"

"That's playing it close, but if that's the way you want to do it, fine. I've sent word to the rest of the League and the Titans about Darkseid. They're ready to come help us."

"So now the only thing we can do is wait. And try to pick a place to lure Darkseid's army to fight in. Preferably away from big cities."

"I don't know about that. He knew that Raven was last seen in Jump. He'll probably go there first."

"Then tell them to evacuate the city. Make sure those people don't get caught in the crossfire."

"Already done."

"You're on top of things, aren't you, Bruce."

"Always. Now, I suggest you two get ready for this fight. It's not going to be a pleasant one."

The dark knight turned around and left, leaving the other two heroes to look out the window. Among the stars, there were also tiny specks of light that could be made out, clustered in a cloud, growing ever so slightly as it came nearer to them.

* * *

_Ice Palace _

"You've returned."

"I have. I think I did better than I thought."

Lilith nodded. "Good to hear. I, however, only have bad news for you. Observe."

The demon queen gestured and before her, a disc of ice appeared in midair. After a moment, an image appeared in it. A thousand ships, making their way towards Earth.

"Your world is in danger, Pride-"

"Raven."

"Raven," she repeated. "It would appear that one of the gods of your world is attacking."

The empath thought carefully for a moment. Gods of her world... "Darkseid."

"Whoever he is, he appears to be more than a match for your mortal heroes. They may require your aid."

Raven frowned. "I don't trust them. Many of our 'mortal heroes' from the Justice League would want me locked up. I'm dangerous, a menace, to them, in their eyes."

"Then your world shall fall."

"They've fought him before and beaten him back. I don't see why hey need me."

"It is your choice. Just be sure that those you care about are endagered without you to protect them."

_Jinx. _Raven put a hand to her head, closing her eyes. "Never mind. You're right. They need me. I'll be back soon."

She disappeared into a dark portal and was gone.

* * *

A few minutes later, another portal opened and a familiar, slender figure with very dark crimson air and pale red skin appeared, a scowl plastered on her face, brows knitted closely together.

"Harboring humans is unlike you, Lilith."

The blue lady remained unfazed. "My business is not yours. I did not know that it was acceptable for demon nobles to spy upon one another."

"But it is acceptable when it is necessary to maintain order. Now, I don't know what you intend to do with this human, but you surely must realize that she cannot possibly be a threat to us."

Lilith laughed softly. "True, she is a human."

"So then what are you plotting to do with her? I trust that you are not stupid enough to try to pit a human against his majesty. She would not even be able to defeat one of us, the demon lords."

"And perhaps that is not my intent. She is half demon, it is nto that out of place for her to be here."

"Don't play dumb. You were never one to entertain visitors of our kind, let alone a mixling, a monster. You're planning to do something with her."

"If you say so."

Sonya's gaze was penetrating, but Lilith remained a frozen wall to her, stoic, unbreakable.

"What are you plotting?"

"What makes you think I'm plotting something?"

Sonya fell silent again. Her dark gaze met Lilith's equally dark one. It was as if they were fighting each other through intimidation alone, two wills set against each other, trying to outglare the other. But in the end, neither of them broke, and they both knew it was pointless.

"Why do you not join us?"

"Why must I? You, a demon lord of all things, should know why I do not."

"I know. He's usurping the balance. We should be the ones in control of our own realms, not him. And he treats everything else like trash. Only bent on destruction. Hell, even I am trash to him."

"And you're not that type. So why serve him?"

"No choice."

Lilith frowned. "You know, you and I think alike, do we not? Those who serve us, we lord over them as tyrants, yet we are the only things giving their lives meaning and purpose, and we do not treat them poorly either. We also are not attuned to the wings of destruction as Trigon and many of the others are. Last I checked, you used to remain shut tightly in your own realm, caring for your own people."

"I've changed."

"I don't think so. You still don't care for it. But you're doing it, because... why?"

Sonya smiled, a sad smile. "Because to the lord, I'm like one of the lesser demons. When there is no choice, you do what you must do. Because you have no say in the matter."

"You can always fight it."

"That's what you think." Sonya laughed a little. "You were always so gentle, Lilith. Spirited, resilient, but gentle. You couldn't possibly match the brutality that he and his minions posses."

"And so were you. Since when did you become so cruel?"

"Me? Cruel? I'm only trying to _help you. _Don't you realize it? I'm trying to save your neck and your realm from his interference?"

"That's not what I'm talking about. You think that I'm thinking about myself. But that's not it. What I'm referring to is the way you look at and treat those mortals."

"Ants beneath our feet."

"You didn't always think that way."

Sonya frowned. "They're mortals. They'll die anyway. What's the harm in it being a little sooner than later?"

"Since when did you become so cynical?"

"And since when did you care so much about them?"

"I don't. But surely you feel that it's wrong to interfere in their affairs? We have our own, and they have theirs. Our worlds are separate, not meant to cross with each other."

"Times are changing. I'll leave you with that, Lilith. Watch yourself. Don't do anything to upset him. I'd hate to see you killed like the other ones who defied him were."

And yet, despite all her veiled threats, Lilith detected a hint of uncertainty in the other demon, just the slightest hint of doubt. She frowned as a portal opened, carrying Sonya away, and then got up, pacing back and forth, a storm of thoughts running through her mind.

* * *

She appeared out of a dark portal and stepped back into her room, shivering slightly from the intense cold. Stripping off her blue dress, Raven quickly donned her normal leotard and chose a black cloak from her closet, feeling a little darker than usual at the moment.

Raven groaned and lay down on her bed, feeling rather lightheaded and a little tired. A side effect of her journey to Trigon's realm, she supposed. She had not exerted _that _much power, but it still had been exhausting, mostly because of the stress it had put on her emotions. She had handled it well on the outside, but... well, it was more than she was used to.

She closed her eyes. _Sleep. _

Raven felt like she desperately needed rest. All that harsh training with Lilith had gained her a lot of power but had physically exhausted her. And the journey to her father's realm had been emotionally taxing, though she had been stressed that way for so long that her resilience was incredibly high. She had learned to live with and deal with her emotions, fight through them if she had to to do what was required of her. Not that they didn't overtake her sometimes, but she had gotten used to being constantly depressed or moody or angry. Actually, the distinction wasn't that important. Right now, she was just tired.

_But no time to rest. Darkseid - _Muttering to herself, Raven sat up and felt the world spin around her and almost collapsed back down again. _Fight through it. _After a moment, her head cleared up and she felt a bit better, a little bit rejuvenated. She rose up and phased through her door, quickly drifting down the hall to the door to the common room. And as the doors slid open, she caught sight of several members of the Justice League - the founding members - gathered there, with the Titans scattered around the room, but no sign of Jinx. And then she turned and caught sight of Green Lantern, who seemed to be weakened greatly, recovering from some injury or illness, eating a bowl of steaming soup. She raised an eyebrow.

"Wasn't he supposed to be missing? And why are all of you here? What's the occassion?"

Everyone turned and looked at her. "Raven, you're back-"

Superman held up a hand and stopped everyone else from speaking. "Miss Raven. To address your question, yes. However, some demon by the name of Envy apparently released him and allowed him to return safely to us."

_So Wrath and Lust were successful._

"Our being here, however, is not concerned with Green Lantern. It is with you. We were... notified that you have been to some interesting places."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Who told you-"

"That doesn't matter. What matters right now is that you went to hell and consorted with presumably a demon lord, although we are aware that it was not Trigon-"

"That's also my business and it doesn't concern you. And why should you care about what I do anyway?"

"Surely you realize that we have every reason to be suspicious of you with Trigon's minions assaulting us everywhere?"

"And you also realize that I've been fighting them. As a matter of fact, I just convinced my brothers - the acting generals of Trigon's army to standby and stop attacking Earth."

"She's on our side, Superman-" Batman grumbled, but was cut off.

"We agreed on this. GL agrees with us too. It's our six votes against your one, Batman. I'm sorry."

"To do what, exactly?" Raven broke in.

Superman looked at her seriously. "Our job, as the Justice League, is to protect this world from all manner of supernatural threat or terrorism or any danger to humanity on a mass scale. You will agree that you fall under those categories, given the amount of power that you wield."

"Sure. And you do too."

"You're a half-demon," Hawkgirl said sternly. "We have to consider you to be dangerous. By nature of your heritage, you're going to be a threat."

"And I've also proven that I'm not-"

"We don't know that for sure. Given some of your past actions and your emotional instability-"

"My what?!"

"Your emotional instability. You have not proven to be the most controlled person, even if the amount of control you've shown is impressive, given your upbringing and personality."

"And the conflicting sides of your demon human blood," J'onn added. "We understand it is difficult for you to be accused of such things when you have done mostly good for this world, but please try to understand our side, Miss Raven. You must surely realize that any demon is a threat and trust must be earned before it is given."

"And all the work I've done to save people isn't enough for you?"

"Apparently not," Batman grumbled.

Raven looked at him in silent thanks and he gave her a curt nod in response.

"No, it isn't," Superman replied. "League has its own protocol and I don't intend to break it. All we're asking you to do is come to the Watchtower for a couple weeks, allow yourself to be closely monitored, and be subjected to a few mental tests. It won't be too intrusive-"

"No."

"Do I need to say I told you so?"

Superman glared at Batman, who wore an almost triumphant smirk on his face. And then he sighed. "I understand it might sound a bit bad right now, but in your case we won't do anything extreme-"

"My answer is no. You also understand what this sounds like to me. You'll have to take me by force."

Hawkgirl nodded. "So be it. Think you can handle all of us?"

Raven snorted. "Is this really the time to be fighting me? With Darkseid on your doorstep?"

"How do you know about that-"

"I was told by a certain demon queen that I was 'consorting' with. But it makes you wonder. Do you have your priorities set straight? He's coming soon, isn't he?"

"Seven hours," Batman grumbled. "I say we leave her be and-"

"No. And if you won't support us, then we'll do this without you."

"Bring it on," Raven scowled. "And if you don't mind, make it quick. We're causing enough trouble as it is."

"As you wish." Hawkgirl leapt in and attacked, but Wonder Woman flew forward as well and held her back.

"Wait! Not here - too many people and buildings around."

"You can't trust demons," GL suddenly spoke, his voice wearied but still stern, a tone of self-righteousness imbued in it. "Relocate and she might just run off."

"She won't." A new voice suddenly appeared and everyone turned except for Raven, who froze in place.

_Jinx. _

"You can trust her," she said meaningfully.

"No, we can't. I've already had this discussion with Batman and I don't intend to weigh your word over his, no offense."

"But - Ugh!" She stomped her foot on the ground. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"What wasn't?" Raven asked her quietly, sensing something disturbing from the other girl.

"Err... I-"

"You-" Hawkgirl tried to speak, but Wonder Woman and Superman both quickly put their hands over her mouth. She struggled for a minute against the pair's arms and eventually managed to break free, standing before Raven once more. "You wanted to know who told us about you, right?"

Raven's eyes instantly narrowed and a dark aura surrounded her. "She wouldn't have-"

"She did."

"No... no..."

Jinx turned, wide eyed, toward Raven. "I-"

"You sold me out," Raven's voice became a growl and four red eyes opened underneath her hood.

"I... I was trying to protect you-"

"You told them about _my _business. Jinx - I _trusted _you."

"B-But I thought you were in danger! I thought that-"

"You told the League, _knowing _that they would interfere in _my _affairs-"

"I didn't know-"

Raven paused, breathing heavily. _Jinx. I... thought I could trust you with myself. My emotions, my mind... I was even willing to tell you about what I was doing..._

_Why did you have to betray me? Why?_

Raven struggled to keep from crying and bit her lip, holding back all of her emotions. _How much did you tell them about me? Spill all of my secrets? Everything I've told you? And now they're going to bring me to their space station and run their little tests on me and forcefully pry their way into my mind and see just how messed up I am. And you'll be able to laugh, with everyone else, all of the other people I once called friends, at me, and the way they'll treat me, like a dog, a threat that has to be restrained with a leash..._

_Oh, they say they won't do anything too drastic to me, they say that they'll let me have my freedom, but they're all great liars. Every one of them. Same way I trusted the Titans, and they treated me like dirt in times of crisis... not like a friend, but a threat. And the League did too when I first came here. Turned me away just because I was the daughter of Trigon, left me to rot alone. And when Trigon actually came, they blamed me for it even though I warned them, even after I had stopped him already. Now they're just going to lock me up. _

_And you caused this... Jinx. You must have known it would happen..._

"You did this... knowing that they would lock me up..."

"We're not going to-"

"I didn't-"

_I thought that after all this time, I could finally find someone I could trust. But I was wrong again._

"Get out," she whispered. "All of you. Except Jinx."

"But-"

"Get out!" Raven screamed, and the sky outside seemed to explode in a fury of dark lightning, an enormous raven of black energy screaming in the midst of the gathering storm clouds.

The Titans all quickly left the room and most of the Leaguers did as well, save for Hawkgirl and Superman, who Batman dragged out before Raven attacked them.

"Raven... Raven please. Listen to me," Jinx got on her knees and begged the girl standing in front of her. "I didn't mean to - I didn't know that they would do something like that - Please, you have to believe me -"

"You honestly told them that I was talking to a demon lord and expected them to leave me alone? You knew they already suspected me," Raven's voice was quiet, though there was still a dark rasp behind it, as if she had been mortally wounded.

"But... I thought that you might get killed. I thought that they could protect you-"

"You thought I was a fool. Well, you were right. I was a fool to trust you, Jinx. I was wrong again."

"Raven, please, no, it's not like that-"

"Enough. I can now see how wrong I was-"

"Rae-"

"Enough!" She screamed again and the sky imploded in another frenzy of lightning. "And don't call me that. We're not friends. I guess we never were."

Raven turned away and drifted a few feet away from Jinx, head bent down toward the ground. "Enough," her voice was quiet again. "Humans seem to be a worthless bunch anyway. If we're all doomed, I don't see a problem with it."

"Rae, what are you talking about-"

"I told you not to call me that!" Raven snapped at her. And her voice was instantly a whisper once more. "Fine. Whatever. They can take me wherever they want. I don't care anymore."

"Rae-"

"No more!... No more..."

Raven extended a tiny beam of her powers toward the door and slid them open, beckoning for the others to come in.

"I won't resist," she said quietly. "Take me wherever you want."

Superman, at least, could not say that he was surprised. He had heard her conversation with Jinx thanks to his superhearing, but the others did not have that ability. As he looked around, most of them wore some expressions of shock, although Batman's face appeared to be grimmer than ever - perhaps he alone knew how much Raven was hurting inside.

He nodded. "Very well. Come with me and hold on tight."

Raven moved near and Superman took out some sort of communication device. "Flash, you there?"

"Yep. What'cha need?"

"Teleportation for two. Back up to the Watchtower."

"You managed to convince her to come without a fight?"

Superman sighed. "Just do it. Neither of us is in a mood to talk."

"Right, right. On it."

A beam of blue light enveloped the pair and a moment later, they were gone.

* * *

"Jinx-" Nightwing turned and found her gone. He closed his eyes. _Where could she have- _

A terrifying wail answered his unspoken question. He quickly dashed out of the room and rushed up to Jinx's only to find a huge hole in the wall. Cursing to himself, he jumped out of it and spread his arms, gliding toward the far shore. He landed a moment later and found the pink haired girl with a knife in hand, pointing it at her chest.

"Wait! I thought that I told you -"

"Raven," Jinx whispered, and drove the knife forward. Nightwing reacted quickly and threw forward a disc, striking the knife out of Jinx's hand before it could plunge into her chest.

The pink haired girl looked up at Nightwing mournfully. "Why didn't you let me..."

"Because I thought I told you and you agreed, you wouldn't overreact to Raven's initial reaction."

"I'm not overreacting."

"Suicide isn't overreacting?"

"No."

Nightwing sighed. "Jinx. If given the chance to, would you try to get her to trust you again? As a friend or something more?"

"A pointless hypothetical situation. Not gonna happen."

"Just answer."

She sighed. "Of course, you idiot! Even if she didn't open up to me, she was like... the best friend I ever had! We cared about each other and knew each other pretty well, given the short amount of time we were together."

"You certainly thought about each other a lot."

"Nice observation, detective."

Nightwing smiled a little. "Trust me. She'll give you another chance. You were only looking out for her, not actually intending to betray her. Once she calms down she'll realize that."

"And how long will that take? I'd rather just kill myself than wait for that to happen."

"And think about her. What if she realizes that she needs a friend but you're not there anymore? Who will support her then?"

"You."

"As much as she is... amiable with me, we're not like that. You're the only person she would actually trust to let into her mind and lean on for emotional support.

"Not true-"

"Very true. You're the only person who could possibly understand."

"Batman-"

"He's an old man. Not quite the same as someone her age, is it?"

_True. That'd be kinda creepy, wouldn't it?_ "But Raven doesn't need a lover, just a friend-"

"Batman still can't understand her the way you can. He's suffered his fair share, but in a different way. You two... it's pretty obvious, you're kinda meant for each other."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean-"

"Not in that way. If it goes that far, fine. But I meant more as... like sisters. Almost like kin, that close of a friendship."

_What if she does need me? What if I can't be there for her because I'm dead? I'd be a pretty shitty friend then, wouldn't I? That would be pretty terrible too. _Jinx sighed. _No matter how much she hates me now, I'll have to be there for her when she actually needs me, don't I? She's not infallible..._ "I get talked out of things way too easily, don't I? You convinced me so easily..."

"Good thing in this case, I suppose."

"But it seems..."

"Don't worry, you're not weak or anything. Just able to recognize something true when you hear it."

_I hope to God that it's true. _Jinx sighed again. "Raven..."

"Worry about yourself for now. League isn't going to do anything to her until this Darkseid thing is over. If it will even be over at all."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Every time the League has fought him it's been a close call, hasn't it? We might not be able to beat him this time-"

Jinx shrugged. "We've gotta try." A small smile crossed her lips. "C'mon, it can't be that hard to beat such a fatass, can it? All we have to do is dodge those beam thingies and push him over, then he'll just collapse under his own weight."

"Was that supposed to be a joke?"

Jinx facepalmed. "Either I'm a bad comedian or you have no sense of humor. Raven's more fun than you."

"And that's why you two are better friends than either of you are with me. Come, let's get ready, the League's going to need us soon."

* * *

_Watchtower_

Raven stared out of the window to her room at the approaching specks of light in the distance, the vanguard of Darkseid's army. Wordlessly, she drifted away from it and hovered in place, lost in thought. And then to a different spot in the room, and then moved again, almost as if she were pacing back and forth.

"Something wrong?" A voice called out from the window on the far side of the room.

Raven looked up. _Batgirl and Wonder girl. I guess the League is shorthanded right now if those two are standing guard over me. Not like I care to break free anyway. _

"No," she muttered, and drifted away again.

The two superheroes outside of the room looked at each other.

"I wonder what's wrong with her?" Batgirl whispered. "She seems so depressed."

"Careful, she might hear you."

Batgirl shrugged. "She doesn't seem to care."

"But still - she's scary."

A laugh. "Donna, I didn't know you were a chicken-"

"I'm not! It's just... half demon princess you know, and we're standing guard over her alone."

"Relax, they said her powers couldn't be used while she was in that cell."

"League is wrong about a lot of things. I've heard about her. They were wrong to stick her in there in the first place, for example."

Batgirl sighed. "I guess so. But we're not the League and we have no say in it. We just follow orders. And besides, what would Diana say if you set her free?"

"Batman wouldn't mind, though. He acts like she's family."

"I guess. Although, I feel like we should help her or something... you know, try to talk to her. Even if we can't free her, we can try to make her feel better, right?"

"If you say so."

They looked at each other for a moment and then turned away. "Err... Never mind. Not yet." Barbara Gordon had to admit that she agreed with Donna Troy. Raven was _scary. _Not in the sense that Darkseid was scary but almost in the way the Joker was scary. You didn't know what she was going to do or how she would react, and given the magnitude of her powers, one wrong step could land you in several places. At once.

Of course, those were just impressions - Raven had always _seemed _to be unapproachable or dangerous, like an ice princess at times, or mentally unstable at others, but most people didn't know how she actually felt. Probably because they were too frightened to find out. Still, once one found out the level of her empathic powers, it because easier to understand that she understood a lot of things about other people, a lot more than she let on.

Which was why she understood that those two superheroes standing outside her door were not against her - they actually felt bad for her and wanted to help, but felt too... constrained by duty to do so.

_I wonder... these humans... such a diverse species of mortal. The variety in their core beliefs is much greater than that of demons, a very nearly homogeneous society. These humans... there are those who truly believe that tyrants are best, like those businessmen, Lex Luthor... Rupert Thorne... that people can be and should be exploited for those better than them. And there are those normal humans who follow a set of morals dictated by society, the vast majority of people. Sociopaths like the Joker, who care only for meaningless destruction, mass murder... and then those with purposeful destruction, to send a greater message, human terrorist organizations. And then those who believe in their fellow man wholeheartedly, most superheroes... and then those precious few... who see all sides of things... Batman. And I thought... I thought she knew... Jinx._

Raven shook her head. _Don't think about her. Think about something else. Something... Batgirl and Wondergirl. I wonder under which category they fall. Are they the self righteous fools that Superman and Hawkgirl are?_

_But they feel bad for me, don't they? They're not judging me solely on the fact that I'm a demon... are they?_

Raven drifted to another place in the room and then stopped. And then drifted away again, like pacing. Deep in thought, lost in her own world.

_Humans... there are those who deserve more than they get and those who deserve less. But in the end, it's not a matter of who deserves what or even any basis on a base moral code that each individual follows. I am not the ultimate judge. If there is some god out there, a God as humans call it, then it will be the judge of humankind based on that subject. I do not presume to be such a God. I am merely... I don't know. I fight to protect those weaker than myself. I fight to protect those that I care about, not that I have many friends, but I still hate to see people suffer... do I? _

_Would those same people that I care about risk their lives for me if I was in trouble, if they knew what... who I actually was? _

_Of course the answer is no. Yet I still fight for them. _

Raven closed her eyes and drifted away again.

* * *

"All here?"

Superman looked around at the huge mass of heroes gathered around the Titans' Tower, and then turned toward the six behind him. The founders, mostly standing at attention and on guard.

"GL, you sure you'll be okay? It's okay if you want to sit this one out, Hal."

"Not a chance. You'll need me. Darkseid is not an easy foe."

"Alright. And the Titans?"

"Nightwing says they'll be here. He just had some business to take care of."

Superman nodded, then looked up into the sky. "So all we have to do is wait."

"Five minutes," Batman grumbled. "Sensors are picking up 1037 ships. Couple stragglers here and there, and a huge one in the center. Definitely Darkseid's command center."

"Then that's where I'm headed. I assume you'll all be following me?"

"Of course. We got your back."

"Maybe. If you'll excuse me," Batman grumbled again, and walked off toward a black aircraft waiting nearby.

"He seems a bit batsier than usual today," Flash scratched his chin. "How'd you make him so upset? I mean, usually it's my job to annoy him."

"The Raven thing," Superman sighed. "He's not happy with any of us, but he also knows we have more pressing issues than that right now."

"Well, yeah, I mean Darkseid's pretty badass-"

"Hello, people of Earth," a voice boomed out from what seemed to be a loudspeaker high in the sky. A very familiar voice, a low, slightly grumbly voice belonging to a certain archnemesis of Superman. "And the so called 'Justice League'. I'm certain you know what I want. Give it to me, and perhaps I might spare your pitiful lives. Or maybe not. It won't hurt your chances though."

"She's away on extended leave," Superman replied. "You'll have to settle for us as a substitute."

"I never did expect you to be cooperative, Superman. That's why I brought this with me." And suddenly, the fleet of ships appeared in the sky, glowing with reddish light as they approached. "I thought that maybe this time, you would listen to an overwhelming force. And if not, you might listen once your friends died."

"None of us is going to die. And if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."

"So be it."

And suddenly, the ship doors opened and many thousands of monstrosities rushed out, landing on the ground and in the sea with tremendous force, then tearing forward with terrifying ferocity. The superheroes met them fearlessly, eye for eye, fist for fist.

"Doomsday clones," Superman frowned, and flew high into the sky, toward Darkseid's fleet.

"Darkseid! Come out and face me in battle like a man! Surely you're not afraid, are you?"

Silence for a moment, then the giant ship appeared in the midst of the others. "Superman, Superman, when will you ever learn? I'm not as easily manipulated as you are. Don't think you can simply taunt me into fighting you. If you want to have the privilege of battling me, earn it!"

And several Doomsdays appeared around Superman and dragged him back down toward the ground, crashing in a massive explosion of sheer physical force.

A moment later, Superman rose up again and smashed them away, gritting his teeth. A difficult battle before him indeed.


	18. Wings of Passage

Disclaimer: Nothing from DC is mine.

I have just come to the conclusion that this will be a very long story...

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

For the most part, it began as a relatively even battle, with neither the League nor the Doomsdays able to gain a hold on one another. The Doomsdays fell at a decent rate, but they also far outnumbered the League heroes, and the League itself was losing some members, something unprecedented - that had not even happened during Darkseid's other attacks.

Superman beat back wave after wave of Doomsday, trying to clear a path so that he could reach Darkseid's ship, but every time he flew up, the creatures dragged him back down. Although, luckily, they seemed to be weaker than the original Doomsday, which had nearly killed him, but considering he was Superman, that had been an enormous feat. Weaker as these ones were to him, they were still dangerous adversaries to the others.

Though, not much could be said about their powers. Just huge masses of physical power and resilience to just about everything.

"Analysis in progress... analysis in progress... analysis in progress..."

Batman flew around in the batplane, shooting at the Doomsdays whenever he could, but his main objective was finding a weakness in the creature. That was always the way he fought, after all, exploiting anything he could to get the job done.

_Superman beat the original Doomsday through sheer power alone. I ran some tests on it afterwards and it turns out that he had critically damaged several of its internal organs and its brain. Of course, he had had to fight through several layers of muscle, tendons, and carapace to get there. These ones don't seem to be as tough, but Darkseid removed their brains and most of their organs. No weak spots physically, and no mind to be exploited. Extremely short life spans because of it though, but that isn't important to him. _

_Batman._

_J'onn._ The dark knight came out of his thoughts and greeted the telepath mentally.

_You have tools for medical treatment on your aircraft, right? _

_Yeah. Get all the wounded to one place. I'll fly down in a couple minutes. _

_Very well. _

Batman sighed. Now that he thought about it, there were several problems in the League. Even if he did find a weakness in the Doomsdays, everyone had different abilities, and it was no guarantee that they would be able to exploit that flaw. Especially since many of the League members, powerful as individuals, had no idea how to work together to bring their foes down. Often times they got in the way of each other and lessened each others' powers. And the other thing, the League had very few healers. Many League members had some form of self regeneration or healing, but once that failed...

Batman landed beside the group of fallen heroes and got out of the batplane. Stepping out, he walked over and found a tall, dark haired lady trying to tend to some of them.

"Bruce," Zatanna greeted him. "Quick, there's not much time. Some of these guys are hurt beyond my abilities to heal and-"

"Just lead the way."

To someone who had never seen so much blood and gore before, it must have been frightening. Some of those injuries were horrifying - severed limbs, bodies broken and twisted this way and that - in a particularly bad case, half of a body completely destroyed - and the worst part was, most of the heroes were still alive thanks to their natural resilience. Well, not for long. Many were also dying as Batman and Zatanna walked past them.

The dark knight grimaced but otherwise gave no outwardly sign that he was troubled by his companions' deaths.

"I can't reattach limbs completely or bring people back from the dead," Batman muttered. "But my medical facility can reattach tissues and even nerve cells. You'll have to seal it off after it's done and we'll let natural regeneration take care of the rest."

"Alright," Zatanna replied. "But your facility is only big enough for one at a time. Depending on how long it takes, most of these guys won't make it."

"I know. But we'll save as many as we can. Come." Batman gestured and the pair lifted a nearby man off the ground and carried him to the batplane. As the machines did their work, they began gathering other wounded people there, hoping that they would last the couple minutes it took to reconnect the tissues.

"Don't we have anyone else who can heal these guys?" Zatanna muttered. "Us two alone won't be able to handle it all."

"Fate's dead and Zauriel disappeared a while ago. And neither of them were particularly good healers. Only other one with any amount of real skill is Raven."

"The demon girl? But I thought Superman had her locked up."

Batman turned a glare on her and she looked back at him, slightly puzzled. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

Batman turned away and loaded another hero into the medical facility as Zatanna finished healing the man who had just come out.

"No," the dark knight grumbled. "You just inadvertently caused the League to distrust Raven when she first came to Earth. It seems to have lasted until now."

"I didn't mean to. I mean, I sensed that she was dangerous and I told them that, but I mean, I know that not all demons are completely out of control. Take Etrigan for example."

Batman nodded. "I know, I know. But nobody else trusts her."

"Well, I don't either," Zatanna admitted. "Though, I'll say that now was definitely not the right time to deal with her. We could use her help right now. If she is willing."

"I have no say in the matter," Batman grumbled bitterly, and then turned to stop Zatanna from lifting a man into the batplane. "Don't bother, he's already dead. Move on to the next one."

Zatanna traced the lines of the man's bloody face. "It's sad when you see all these people die and you can do nothing about it..."

"We can worry about that later. Next one."

"Right, captain."

The put the next one - a woman - in to the medical bay and waited again, knowing it would take a little longer this time. Reattaching two halves of a body was... unpleasant, if at all possible. Miracle that she was even still alive.

Zatanna sighed. "I can tell you're distracted though. Usually you'd be grieving about all your dead friends by now, but you seem oddly calm."

"Really. I didn't know I was the overtly sentimental type-"

"Maybe not, but it's still easy for me to tell at least. Anyway, what's on your mind?"

"What else?"

"The demon girl? That's interesting. I guess she's kind of pretty, but I didn't know you were into girls that much younger than you-"

"It's not that," Batman grumbled, irritated, and Zatanna laughed a little.

"Sorry. Just trying to lighten up the atmosphere."

"Look around."

Doomsdays growling everywhere, throwing themselves upon the League heroes, who were barely holding them back. The sky, dark, thick with stormclouds, a heavy downpour soaking the land, blocked only by the thousand ships that remained as motionless statues in the sky, ominous watchers over the great battle beneath them.

"Trying to lighten up this atmosphere?"

Zatanna looked away, slightly abashed. "Sorry," she said again. "But what do you see in her?"

"A lot more than any of you, who aren't even willing to give her a chance-"

"I never said that I wasn't willing to. I never labeled her a villain outright, just a threat, and she just never happened to prove herself not to be."

"You never got to know her. None of us did. Raven requires a certain measure of empathy that nobody was ever willing to give."

"If you say so," and Zatanna sighed at Bruce's raised eyebrow. "I'm not out to get her you know. I trust your opinion, especially since you're usually right about, well, a lot of things."

"Good to hear that you're open minded. Just wish that the others were..."

"Oh, they'll come around eventually. The one you should be worried about is your little friend. How much abuse can she handle?"

"I don't know. But," Batman looked up at the sky, where Superman was getting dragged down by another horde of Doomsdays. "She might not have to bear any at all if we don't survive this battle."

"Then we'll just have to fight harder."

"Never give up," Batman agreed. "Though our fellow League members don't seem to be sharing our sentiments."

"Don't blame yourself for their deaths, Bruce. We've saved quite a few of them as it is"

"That's not it."

"Then what is - oh. You're not used to being stuck in a supporting role, are you? Usually you're the one out there with Superman fighting where the enemies are thickest."

"I guess I'm just an action hog."

"It's okay. I understand. Go where you need to be-"

"No. I'm not selfish enough to compromise the lives of our fellow Leaguers for my own preferences. I'll go join him when the time comes."

Zatanna watched Superman get flooded over by a horde of Doomsdays. "If it does," she muttered.

* * *

"Nightwing! Behind you!" Starfire called out and the masked hero turned, dodging a powerful blow from one of the Doomsdays.

He kicked back at the creature reflexively, but found that he could not even so much as stagger it. Grimacing, he leapt back, dodging the next blow, and flung a few explosive discs at it, sending it flying back.

But the creature emerged a few seconds later, unharmed, and tore forward again. And then was sent flying as Cyborg rammed into it with his shoulder.

"We've gotta find a better way to kill these things," the robotic man panted. "As far as I can see, nobody's making much progress. At this rate we're going to give out before they do."

A dinosaur was sent flying back and crashed into a mass of the Doomsdays, stunning everything around it temporarily. Beast Boy emerged from the crater, dazed and spinning, but he recovered quickly as the Doomsdays began attacking again. As they closed in, the ground rose and pushed them back, then a barrage of rocks slammed them into the ground.

"Got your back," Terra smiled at Beast Boy.

Suddenly, a Doomsday rose up behind her, but Starfire pummeled it away before it could hit her.

"Friends, tell me, what does 'having the back' mean?"

"It means this!" Nightwing threw some discs at Starfire and she yelped and ducked. The discs hit several Doomsdays that were closing in on her and forced them back.

"These things just don't want to die," he muttered. "Nothing we do works."

"Yeah, that's because we're all reliant on physical attacks, which these guys seem to be immune to. We're not suited to fighting them."

"They seem to be immune to everything," Terra replied, throwing out more rocks at the creatures. "Nobody can kill them, at least not easily."

And then, lines of pink energy ran through the ground, creating deep fissures in the earth. The Doomsdays fell into them and were flooded over by waves of magma, which even they could not withstand, and died noiselessly, their mouths filled over with the molten rock.

"And nobody's immune to bad luck," Jinx emerged in front of the Titans from behind a curtain of smoke. "Need a hand?"

"You're a lifesaver, you know that?"

"I know, I know," she smirked a little, and threw out more bolts of pink energy. They struck the monsters and some of them gave out terrifying shrieks of agony before falling over, dead, while they seemed to have no effect on the others.

The Titans rose up with newfound strength and began pushing the creatures back, acting as shields for Jinx, who began taking down row after row of Doomsdays with her pink hexes.

"Glad to see that you're okay," Nightwing darted by her and kicked one of them back. "Feeling better?"

"A little," Jinx replied. "Well enough to fight, I guess. Not like there's any choice anyway."

Nightwing nodded. "We're hard pressed as it is. You seem to be the only one equipped to kill these things. Even Superman can't do it easily."

They both looked off into the distance, where the man of steel was engaged in a fistfight in the midst of several hundred Doomsdays.

"Though they don't seem to be hurting him much either."

"He's Superman. But the others..."

"Yeah. Makes you wish Raven was here, doesn't it?"

"For other reasons too."

"... shut up," but Jinx didn't sound angry at all, just a little sad. Seemed like Raven's gloomy personality was really rubbing off on her, or maybe just made her inner self show a little more past that normally bubbly exterior. Either way, she missed her dark bird.

* * *

_They're dying. They're falling, one by one, against the onslaught of doomsday. They need me. I hear the cries of pain, Earth's staunch defenders, hope of the world, fallen before the dark side. Death's swift wings claims them for its own and they are borne away to an unsettled rest, not knowing success or failure, but a rest of unfinished business. They need me. They call for my aid, they call upon a demon as they would an angel, a savior nonetheless, to be sought after in times of crisis and shunned in more peaceable times. But they need me._

Raven's eyes snapped open and she suddenly felt very unsure of herself.

_I thought I hated humans. Self absorbed fools who care only about themselves, obsessed with the superficial, unable to comprehend that their short, pitiful lives have no meaning in this world. Seeking happiness, all the bright bubbly things in life, not knowing or caring about the darker aspects. Yet there is still merit in their perseverance as well. And something worth saving in those who care about and defend their fellow mortals. _

_I don't know what to think any more. I don't know what to do. _

_So do what you've always done best. Fight. Or let me do it. _

Raven sighed. _Is that the only thing we know how to do?_

_We've always been fighters, haven't we? Usually against each other or against Trigon, but now it's to protect others. Jinx-_

**_Not anymore. _**_Not anymore... I thought Jinx understood me... I thought we had something._

_We do. She still knows you better than anyone else does. Better than anyone else ever will. And not just that. You __**like **__her. I know I do. _

Raven's eyes narrowed. _In what way, exactly? She betrayed my - our - trust. I thought she knew that the League couldn't be trusted. Actually, she __**did **__know. So why? Why would she do this to me? _

_Because she cares about you and wants to protect me?_

_More like because she thinks I'm worthless and a threat, probably. Well, I suppose I am. Way to shove it back in my face, Jinx. Yes, I know. Not everything's about me. I'm no less pitiful than those humans which I'm supposed to despise. I'm not important at all. But still, I can't help but feel that... Oh, whatever. This is the life we live. I have to do my duty. It's all I have left. My life is only meant for service to others, it seems._

_If you want to think of it that way. At the end of the day, you can only trust yourself._

_No, I can't. I'm worthless, remember? I can't even trust myself. There is nothing in this world to trust. Nothing to feel emotion for, a listless, comatose existence. _

_Then why go on? There must be something stopping you._

_I've wondered the same thing. There must be something driving me on. _

_Well, whatever it is, it's doing just that right now. You going to sit here all day and whine or you going to do something?_

_I don't know. I don't feel like doing anything._

_Then switch out with me and I'll go._

_No. Those two wouldn't let me go. And I don't really want to fight them._

_Then do something. Anything. But you can't sit here and be depressed all day. _

_Then what do you want me to do? Go out there and fight and still be depressed?_

_Yes._

Raven blinked a couple times. She took a deep breath. _Jinx. Why? Doesn't anyone else see something wrong with this? Don't they see - no. They don't. Because they all hate me. They hate my guts to the core and they don't care what happens to me one way or another. Jinx - does that include you? Were you really my friend? Or were you just mocking me the whole time... _

_I told you to stop! You humans... absolutely pitiful. You cannot stop here, Raven. You cannot let your pain consume you. You must bear it, bear it proudly in your heart and though it may eat away at your soul, fight it! Never give up. _

_I wonder. What it feels like when someone else shares your pain. When there is someone there for you so that you might not have to face everything alone._

_There is strength in solitude, girl. Struck down once, twice, by those you trust, and yet you must still rise. No matter how many times you fall, you must get up._

_Or what? I die? Everything gets blown to oblivion? As if I could care. Hell, I think my own life's worthless. I'm the centerpiece in a showcase of freaks. Why bother saving the worst of the worst? Might as well let the darkness's purifying light consume everything and create the world anew. _

_Then what is it that still ties you to this world? Surely it cannot be these self-important mortals that you so detest -_

_I don't know. Maybe it is them. Maybe it's because underneath their bright happy faces, I sense the pain of millions rebounding through my soul, from all the dark crevices of their minds that not even they themselves have explored, I take in their deepest feelings, the strongest emotions and I realize that if I can be there to prevent those most painful emotions from ever emerging, then I will do it, even if I must take on that pain myself. _

_And why do you care about them so much? _

_I told you, I don't know. These so selfish mortals capable of the most wondrous feats at the same time. A mother shielding her daughter, ready to lay down her own life to protect her child. Fear and grief filling her heart - how would she be able to live if her own kid died? A burden to be borne for the rest of her life if such a thing happened. But if the mother died, the kid losing a parent, knowing that she was the cause of it - that because she was in danger, her mother had to die. Either way, a painful burden to be borne for life. It creates those obsessive, twisted people like the worst criminals, supervillains, but it also makes people like Batman. Mortals willing to persevere beyond all odds. As you said, struck down once, twice, maybe a million times, but enduring the pain and rising once more. But then there are those who give in to the pain and grow depressed, overcome by the torment of life, whether it is the death of those close to them, or loss in any form, they lose the will to do anything. Now, if I can be there to prevent that initial loss, even if I risk my own life, I have done something to make my being useful to the world. Worthy of living. _

_So you say, yet you still act so cold toward everyone._

_I let them into my mind and I might very well set off their own repressed feelings. Whether it is fear, anger, sadness... people have a way of reacting to other peoples' emotions. Anger breeds anger, fear breeds fear, depression is contagious. But so are happiness, love, all those other things. _

_Funny how they have not affected you._

_Because I see the world as it is. Happiness is but a farce, love, as they say, is fickle. At the end of the day, the only important thing is the depth of one's own despair. And the ability to ignore it and move on. _

_And right now you seem to be stuck. _

_I'm only human._

_For all your pretty words, you sure are weak. All this talk of anguish and being able to overcome it and here you are, fallen prey to this petty thing called love. _

_More like broken friendship._

_Either way, you fell prey to it. Friends or not, you said it yourself. You are there to protect them. And you will be able to sense if they appreciate it or not._

_That doesn't matter anymore. They all think of me as some great hero until they find out who I actually am. Then I'm the outcast once more. And I've still always fought for them. Now-_

_You still can't give up. True, what you fight for, lessening or at least understanding and sharing the pain of others, can be alleviated by death, or even the tyrannical rule of a dictator like Darkseid, but ultimately it is only a farce. _

_A lie? What do you mean?_

_If the only important thing is the depth of one's own despair, then either of those options - death or dictatorship - do nothing to lessen or greaten that despair. They merely preserve the status quo. It is upon fighting, striving forth in its many forms, that that anguish can be changed. Staying depressed and doing nothing will also produce nothing. Letting it all happen accomplishes nothing. _

Raven was silent. There was a hint of a gleam in her eyes... tears maybe? Or something else. She took in the view of space before her, all the tiny stars and, she knew, but could not see, the tinier planets that circled them. And then, as the Watchtower rotated in its orbit, the Earth, and the sun, enormous compared to the miniscule pinpricks of light in the distance, but as she knew, they were probably much smaller in reality. All a matter of perspective. A bloated sense of one's importance. Her own.

Her mouth curved down. She seemed paler than ever. Raven looked up at the ceiling, as if there was rain falling down on her, water streaming down her face, but there was only the cold steel of the space station. So why was there liquid on her - oh.

She wiped her eyes and regained her composure.

"Batgirl, Wonder Girl," she spoke suddenly.

The two superheroes came to the window. "Need something?"

"I need you to let me out of here. We need to join the fight against Darkseid."

Batgirl and Wonder Girl looked at each other. "We were told to not let you-"

"Listen. You can feel it, can't you? They're losing. There's no way they can beat him by themselves. They need all the help they can get."

It was quiet for a moment. "We can't exactly just trust you, can we? Superman had you brought in for a reason," Wonder Girl frowned. "Look, it's nothing personal, but we can't just let you out-"

Raven sighed. "I know you guys probably don't trust me, but this is beyond that. In times of desperation, even the League was willing to team up with former - and still - villains. The last time Darkseid came."

"Well, Batman trusts her," Batgirl shrugged. "I don't know about you, but that means something to me. He doesn't trust a lot of people except for his old friends."

"I said it wasn't about trust. If we both have a common enemy, and a powerful one at that, I don't have to be your friend to help you beat him."

"I think it's more like they just don't want you to stab them in the back right after Darkseid's gone. Though you don't seem like that type," Wonder Girl peered at Raven, trying to see underneath the hood.

"And why would I do that?"

"Well, to be honest, I think the way they've been treating you isn't really that... great, ya kno? Some people might be offended if they were treated that way."

"And besides, you're a demon... no offense-"

Raven sighed. "So I'm always a threat. Forget the fact that I'm half human. Nope, totally a demon, right? That's why I hate demons and I hate my father and I'm also an outcast amongst them. They probably hate me more than humans do."

"I'm sorry," and Raven was actually surprised that Batgirl sounded like she was.

"For what?"

"I don't know. It just seems like life's been hard on you."

"I've learned to deal with it."

_Have I? Sometimes it seems like... I don't know. Like I really have given up._

"But we have to always keep fighting," her voice was soft. "No matter how much we want to stop."

Batgirl and Wonder Girl glanced at each other again. Sometimes Raven seemed a little crazy, talking to herself like that, lost in her own thoughts, but they had heard about her emoticlones and her inner demon.

"So you're saying we should fight him?"

Raven turned her dark glare on them and they backed away, struck by the intensity of the gaze.

"A fight against oneself," she murmured. "After that, everything is easy."

"Easy?"

"Not physically, no, the battle itself is not easy... but it's easy enough to do, once you know you're going to fight no matter what. After that, at least, there is no more pain." She looked at them darkly again. "No... once you've decided to fight, nothing will stop you. Nothing. Let me out."

"But-"

"Unless _you'd _like to stop me. Either way, I'm going, whether it's through you, or whether it's taking you down to Earth with me."

"I- fine."

"Batgirl!"

"You want to fight her, Donna? Be my guest. You'll have to do it alone. Right now, there are more important things than squabbling amongst ourselves."

Wonder Girl frowned and thought for a moment. "I guess so. Here."

She fidgeted with the lock on the door for a moment and the cell opened. Raven drifted by her, and though she was a few inches shorter than the other girl, she seemed far more intimidating, deadlier - she had much more presence. Small in stature, but with an air that she was larger than life. And then it was suddenly gone, and she was just a normal human girl again, a scared, tiny girl who seemed very unsure of herself.

"You're scared," Batgirl said, surprised.

Raven didn't respond. Instead, she threw open her cloak and dark energy streamed out, the black cloak taking on the appearance of a pair of wings. A moment later, a portal enclosed them and they all disappeared.

* * *

(I've noted this many times in many of my stories... I'm horrible at writing battle scenes. Most of this one will be missing. If anyone actually wants to write it for me, I will be glad to include it and give credit. If not, it's not really that important anyway.)

"Darkseid! Come out and face me like a man! You've hid in there for long enough!" Superman flew up, a mass of Doomsdays dead on the ground beneath him. It had taken a while, but in the end he had outlasted them and been victorious.

"And what of your precious League, Superman? Willing to let them die to my army just so that you can fight me and lose?"

"The League is not a bunch of children who need to be taken care of," Batman's voice suddenly appeared behind Superman. The batplane flew forward and fired a few missiles at Darkseid's ship, destroying several of the engines. "We all came into this knowing the risks, knowing we might die. But that didn't stop us."

Darkseid's laugh was hollow, made more so by the fact that it was broadcast over his ship's speakers. "You little fools. Even if you beat my Doomsdays, do you think that you can actually defeat me?"

"And what makes you think you can beat us?" Hawkgirl came up and rammed her mace into another one of the ship's engines. It began spiraling downward toward the ground, set aflame, giving off black smoke. And then it flew back up, encased in green light.

"Don't sell us out yet, big guy."

"We will not be intimidated by your threats-"

"This is gonna be fun-"

"I've been looking forward to this..."

The League founders gathered before the smoking ship as Darkseid emerged from it.

"Eager, are we?"

"Enough of this, Darkseid. This ends _now._"

"So you say, Superman. But tell me, when was the last time you managed to beat me?"

"I'm still here."

"Not for long."

Darkseid launched forward with frightening speed, but Flash and Superman both reacted quickly enough. Throwing him backwards, they leapt forward to pummel him in a flurry of fists, but were stopped the villain's own blows. Flash was sent flying backwards but Superman withstood the punch and tried again.

"Not good enough, man of steel," Darkseid whispered menacingly, and slammed a fist into his face. This time Superman was sent flying into the air as well. He turned as the rest of the League founders ran up behind him and sent out a pair of omega beams, diverting Batman and Wonder Woman away, then meeting the martian and Hawkgirl head on. And then he was slammed into the ground by a huge beam of green light.

"Miserable humans..." Darkseid grumbled as he got off of the ground, and sent out several more waves of omega beams before jumping into battle again.

The League met him head on in a huge explosion in the sky and everything faded away into a mass of light.

* * *

"Nightwing!"

"Barb- Batgirl? Weren't you supposed to-"

"No time to explain. We're in the middle of a fight, right?"

"Yeah." The pair of them beat back a bunch of Doomsdays and were about to strike again when the creatures were suddenly struck by several pink bolts of energy and fell over, dead.

Batgirl turned and looked at the pink haired girl, who was already looking in another direction, taking aim at more of the monsters.

"So that's the Jinx girl?"

"Yeah. You heard about her and-"

"Raven. Yep, heard it all. It's weird, you know, two girls having a relationship."

"They weren't like that. Just friends. Of course, Raven really doesn't have many friends. Never made many at all."

"I can see that - oof!" Batgirl grunted as a Doomsday struck her, sending her flying back. As it closed in, it suddenly was stopped in its tracks by a blast of pink energy and died instantly. Batgirl looked over her shoulder.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Just don't get distracted by Nightwing's dashing good looks next time," Jinx smirked at her, and looked away once more.

"You okay?" Nightwing ran over.

Batgirl moved him aside and kicked the monster that was coming up behind him. "Now don't you get distracted by my 'dashing good looks' either."

Nightwing grinned sheepishly. "My bad. Guess we gotta focus and not chat so much."

Batgirl nodded and ducked under a huge, muscled arm, throwing a couple of smoke grenades, reducing the vision in the immediate vicinity to nothing.

"Can't hit what they can't see," she muttered. "With any luck, they'll start attacking each other."

And then a punch landed on her back and she was sent crashing into the ground.

"Oops, sorry Barb."

"Or you can attack me, you dick."

"Oh, I see what you did there-"

"Okay, can you two love birds stop flirting with each other and help me here?" Jinx yelled from behind them, backing away from a wall of the massive Doomsdays.

"Right. We're in a fight, not on a date."

"Same difference. We used to have a lot of arguments-"

"Oh, you know what I mean. Just shut up and start hitting things."

* * *

"Diana!"

Wonder Girl ran over to the fallen hero and cradled her head in her lap.

"Donna?"

"What happened?" Wonder Girl looked as if she was almost going to cry. "Look at you..."

Wonder Woman was a mess, although she wasn't quite as hurt as the other Leaguers who had been torn up by the Doomsdays. Not that she was in a good condition at all. Minus the bruises and cuts all over her body, her right arm had been dislocated and right leg seemed to be broken in a couple places. As Wonder Girl felt around for wounds, she noticed several broke ribs and the shallowness of the other woman's breath.

_Probably punctured her lung. Better get rid of the blood - fast - or else she'll drown in it. _

Wonder Girl flipped the older Amazon upside down and patted her back a couple times. She coughed a little and blood flowed out of her mouth.

"Donna... stay away from him... you'll get hurt..."

"Why don't you worry about yourself? Relax, I won't get hurt."

"Donna-"

"Shhhh, save your strength, I'll get you to safety-"

"Not necessary," a voice sounded from behind Donna and the girl turned to see Zatanna behind her. "I'll take care of her. Go help the others fight those monsters."

"But-"

"Listen, Wonder Girl," Zatanna's voice dropped to a whisper. "You being here is only going to make Diana want to fight more. If you're safe, she won't feel like she needs to get up and protect you. Stay as far away from Darkseid as you can."

"Alright." Wonder Girl looked back down at Wonder Woman. "Diana-"

"Go. I'll be okay." _Hopefully. _

Wonder Girl nodded and ran off toward the horde of Doomsdays, and flying over them, caught sight of the Titans not too far off. A moment later, she joined them in pushing back the creatures and allowing Jinx to decimate them.

She found Batgirl not long after and exchanged a glance with her. "Raven still hasn't showed up?"

"Nope. I haven't see her since she dropped us off here."

Wonder Girl frowned. "I thought that she was actually gonna help. I didn't take her for the type to run away..."

"Maybe she hasn't yet."

"Then what is she doing?"

"Avoiding me," Jinx said quietly, to herself. _Raven... I- never mind. You probably don't care anymore. But if you're listening..._

* * *

Raven sat quietly on the top of the Titans' Tower, sensing the storming emotions from the enormous battle taking place at the base of the tower and on the opposite shore. Her attention turned up into the sky, where Darkseid was still fighting with Superman, Batman, and Hawkgirl, and then down below them, where Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter lay fallen. She had seen Zatanna carry away the bodies of Flash and Wonder Woman earlier - their injuries did not seem life threatening, but they would not be fighting any time soon with Zatanna's healing abilities.

And then back to the shore, to a single point of pink. _Jinx. You... _Raven closed her eyes. She extended the range of her senses and got an image of Jinx intently focused on aiming her power precisely so she wouldn't hit any of the other Titans. And then she sensed those pink bolts of energy hit the Doomsdays and wreak havoc on them, causing all sorts of problems. Muscles to rip upon impact with something, bones breaking at what should have been a light kick to them, but hitting in just the right spot to deal devastating damage, organ failure, all sorts of lucky stuff for the superheroes but unlucky for the monsters. Things that should have only had a one in a million chance of happening, but were occurring left and right.

And then even further in on Jinx, and she sensed that the other girl was troubled. _Well of course she is. How many people have died down there already? Or if not dead, then grievously injured? That would disturb almost anyone. _She sensed Jinx look up toward the spot where she was sitting and wondered if the other girl could sense her as well.

_Yes. Can you feel how much you hurt me? This burning agony, tearing at my soul, if I even have one left. You've destroyed me. But I guess that's what you wanted to begin with. Ugh. Trust. Friendship. It all seems foolish now. And I'm the fool for being obsessed with them. _

But no matter how she thought about it, Raven found that she could not break away. Her feet would not stand, her powers would not work, her emotions simply would not stay down. She took a deep breath.

"Azarath metrion zinthos." _Clear my head of everything. Just focus in on my powers. Let everything else go. Let Jinx go. Let what she did to me go. Let - Goddamn it. God. Damn. It. _

Raven held her head in her arms and shuddered. _Is it really a big deal? Do I sacrifice our friendship over something like this-_

_What friendship? The one like I had with the Titans? Great friends they turned out to be. And she's the same. She-_

_She seems hurt._

_So am I. But that doesn't matter at all. _

_But it almost seems as if... she didn't mean it. Like she still cares about you. _

_Not a chance in hell. I'm done with hope. Every single time, I believe that maybe there's a chance for something, anything at all, and every time, those hopes are dashed by those things that I put my faith in. Without that... without that, I think I can focus a little more on what's important. _

_Which is?_

_Alleviating the pain that plagues this world. As one might put it, caring for others but not caring enough to build relationships with them. Knowing what lurks in the depths of their minds but only knowing them in passing. That way, they won't know who I am, at least. It's enough. When I can feel their emotions, whatever ails them, it resonates with me and produces the same effect. By the same token, when that torment is truly lessened, and not just covered up, then my own is lessened as well. That's what's important. _

_And this applies to Jinx too?_

_Jinx, Jinx, Jinx. What's the deal with her anyway?_

_Nothing. It's time to go._

_It is. _

* * *

And suddenly, the battlefield was steeped in overwhelming darkness, a blackness so overwhelming that nothing could be seen or even sensed at all. It was gone as quickly as it came, a wave of black passing by, only remaining as a giant raven the sky, before condensing into the small form of a half demon female.

"Sure knows how to make an entrance," Batgirl muttered. "So she didn't abandon us. See, I told you."

"Guess you were right. She seems angry."

"Yeah..."

As Raven stormed past the Doomsdays, a great trail of dark energy followed in her wake, consuming everything that touched it. Surrounded by an immense cloud of crepuscular void, she landed where Darkseid had been fighting the League and stopped, surveying her surroundings. Hawkgirl lay sprawled on the ground, amongst the decimated buildings and shore, and Superman was nowhere to be seen. Although the destruction was immense, because most of the fight had taken place in the sky, it was not as bad as it could have been.

"Thought you might show up," Batman grumbled from behind her, clutching his arm. "Had a feeling."

Raven did not reply and faced Darkseid, her face hidden by her hood.

"Well, well, look what we have here. Just the person, or should I say demon, I was looking for."

Raven still remained silent, motionless.

"Not going to talk? Come now, we haven't even met yet. At least you could introduce yourself to me."

"Not likely," Batman muttered. "We came here to fight, not chat."

"And look where that's gotten you. Superman couldn't stand against me, nor could any of your other heroes. What can you, a human, do against me?"

"What's your point? Do you think that will make me give up? Lose the spirit to fight you? If you think that, then you've got another thing coming."

"Show me what you can do."

"With pleasure," Raven snarled suddenly, and her cloak flew wide open. A huge torrent of power streamed out and rammed Darkseid back. She growled viciously again and a mass of tendrils poured out, pummeling the villain into the ground. And again, and reality warped around Darkseid, causing the shadows to come to life and strike him over and over, not stopping until there was no more movement.

"Foolish girl," Darkseid's voice sounded, and in a blast of red light, everything around him destroyed. He emerged from the crater into which he had been slammed, barely hurt. "Did you think that that would kill me? I thought that you would be better than that."

He grimaced and sent out a pair of omega beams, but Raven gestured at them and they practically froze to a halt in mid air.

"Did you think that that could reach me? I thought that _you _would not be so dumb."

"Oh?" The villain smiled. "Perhaps you are better than I thought."

His hand rose and a moment later, Raven double over, trembling, pain coursing through her body. She gritted her teeth and kept silent, glaring up at him, eyes white lights under the darkness of her hood.

"Or not. Disappointing. Seems like you are no better than Superman after all."

He approached her and stretched out a hand to pull back her hood. And then Raven grinned, mouth filled with wickedly sharp teeth. She flew up and put a palm on his face, eyes glowing faintly red.

"Got you."

"You... you were just pretending-"

Black light formed beneath her hand and both of them disappeared in a mass of darkness.

* * *

_Mindscape - Darkseid _

A bleak, scorched world not unlike her father's hell, barren, as harsh and bleak as he himself. Apokalips, it was called in reality, a representation of the figurative end of the world, his mind, it had no name. A representation of his personality in the landscape itself.

Darkseid got up and looked around, a frown etched onto his face. _Apokalips? No... it's empty. Then, where is this?_

"Your mind. But, don't get the wrong idea. You're not in control here."

Darkseid laughed. "And you are? You don't know the limitations of your own powers, girl. True, you may have created this illusion, but-"

"It's not an illusion. This _is _your mind. And we're going to find out what makes you tick."

The villain frowned deeply, angrily. "What makes you think I'm going to let you?"

He launched forward, but suddenly found himself encased in dark energy. Gritting his teeth, he shattered his constraints with a pair of omega beams and then shot another pair at Raven. And once again, she gestured, slowing them down to a halt, although this time, she was visibly fatigued by doing so.

"Seems like that power takes its toll on you. I, however, can shoot these off without end."

"That's not the point," Raven breathed out heavily, panting a little. "Here in your mind, anything can happen. It's not about brute strength anymore. If you fire your, what are they called... omega beams?... at me - " she broke off as he did so, and faced them fearlessly. Instantly, four figures that appeared to be humanoid females materialized in front of her and were vaporized instead. "What if your so called furies took the blow for me instead?"

Darkseid's eyes widened. "You insolent... you wouldn't have dared-"

Raven shrugged. The furies reappeared, this time as faded, pale ghosts, faces contorted with agony. "Master -" They cried out to him and then were silenced once more by a wave of black power.

"I simply dragged them into your mind with us before you noticed. But, say you try again, and -" and this time, strange, doglike monstrosities blocked the attack. "And I can make something else stop it. You see, in the mind, anything can be created, although the manipulation of another's imagination is limited by one's powers."

Darkseid balled his fists, glaring angrily at her, but then calmed himself down and thought carefully for a moment. "Yes... yes, you were right after all. No longer is this about brute strength. If this world is empowered by my imagination, then all I have to do is think of you dead."

He smirked and waited for her to die, but frowned again after it became apparent that she was not going to.

Raven sighed. "You just don't get it, do you? You see, I'm not a part of your mind. I'm an... observer, if you will. And I see many things in you that you keep hidden, out of fear, insecurities lurking beneath that oh so mighty godly exterior-"

Darkseid's eyes narrowed. "Insecurities? I have had just about enough of your nonsense-"

"Everyone has them. Gods included. You see, the minds of the supposedly mighty are actually more plagued by such things than are the minds of the weak. There is always something that drives the will, twisting your personality and carving up your soul, there to make you stronger, but there to break you as well. And you fear it."

And in the red sky, a lightless void began to grow, shrouding the Apokalips-like world in a veil of gloom. Behind Raven, far behind her near the horizon, the soil began to drop away into a void below and left them standing on an island. But Darkseid did not notice.

"The only thing I fear is being bored to death by your long-winded speeches-"

"And your father."

Darkseid froze. "You-"

"You see, you New Gods seem to have this problem. When you are confident in your own abilities, that you are stronger, then there is no fear at all. When, however, you are met with an overwhelming force, you lose all fighting will and submit, not daring to lift a finger to do battle. How cowardly. It only makes sense, then, that the almighty Darkseid actually envies mortals for their courage to stand up against impossible odds-"

"Shut up!"

He jumped forward, but suddenly an image of his father appeared before him and blocked his path. Darkseid stopped, eyeing the image warily, not wanting to take any risks. Though it might have only been a figment of his imagination...

"See? How is it that a 'pitiful human' like Batman can stand up to someone far beyond his powers, and you, the mighty Darkseid, dare not fight someone stronger than you? And you call yourself a god. In the end, you were only a coward."

Darkseid slammed his fist against the wall of a nearby building and sent forth a pair of omega beams, disintegrating the image of his father. "You dare call me coward?! I'll show you-"

"I do, Uxas."

Darkseid's eyes widened at the mention of his former name. "How do you know-"

"Oh, I know all about it. You are a spineless, weak fool, Uxas. Why else would you have had to plot to murder your brother and steal the Omega Effect to gain power? Because you were not strong enough to do it by yourself, you had to have someone else do it, then double cross him. Truly pitiful."

Around Raven, images appeared in the shadows, a dark figure creeping around behind several other ones, raising a knife when the other was not looking, stabbing down, then both of them disappearing, sunken down in to a pool of black. And then around him, soft touches on his body, almost like caresses, then a sudden pain, and he howled, putting a hand to his back, expecting blood, but finding nothing there.

Darkseid gritted his teeth and jumped forward again, lashing out at Raven. She summoned a dark shield and repelled him back, and as he fired off another pair of omega beams, another image appeared in front of Raven, a slight, dark haired woman with pointed ears.

"No!" Darkseid rushed forward and put a hand to try to stop the beams from hitting her, but it was too late, and the woman let out a shriek as she was disintegrated.

The villain fell to his knees and punched the ground viciously, creating a huge crater, causing everything to tremble.

"You and I are very much alike in that sense," Raven said softly. "Friendless, solitary beings who have lost those they care about. What you seek, and what I sought before... the only thing we ever wanted was companionship, and it was taken away. Although in different ways."

Darkseid glared at her, but he seemed to have momentarily lost his will to fight. "You know about her too-"

"The one you loved, and the one your own mother had poisoned because she did not approve of her. Yes, of course. Suli, that was her name, correct? How terrible when parents only wish to destroy everything their children love. And how much it twists people when their own parents abuse them, treat them only as tools to be used for their own purposes and not like their own children at all..." _Like Trigon. Like his father and mother, Yuga Khan and Heggra, who forced their own ideas on him and poisoned his mind. Who knows how Darkseid might have turned out if left to his own devices... but that was not to be with the environment he was brought up in. It's a wonder that I didn't turn out like him... _

Raven drifted around, circling the kneeling supervillain. "Think about how everything might have been different. How everything could still be different. If you find a friend, or even someone to love, you no longer need to pursue this pointless quest to consume other worlds and control all life. That was your father's dream, not yours, wasn't it? Why don't you pursue what _you _want for a change?"

Darkseid was silent and remained motionless as the hellish world around him faded back into darkness.

* * *

_So that was the limit of my power. Lilith was right, it's a lot more difficult to manipulate the reality of a powerful being like Darkseid. Normally I can teleport into a person's mind indefinitely... _

Raven opened her eyes and felt a wave of nausea come over her. Her vision blurred and she struggled to keep focus, staggering back. In front of her, a massive shape rose up from the ruined grounds and towered over her. It held a hand to its head and trembled a little.

"You almost had me," Darkseid's deep voice sounded. "I'll admit, there were some things that you said and showed me that were... striking. Maybe if you had stuck me in that hellhole for a while longer, I may have been more inclined to believe you. But you gave out too soon. And now you lose."

Raven drifted back as Darkseid fired a pair of omega beams at her. She mustered up her power and froze them in midair once more, but he was ready this time and flew forward, fists raised. Raven barely rose a shield in time, but it wavered as he slammed into it with both fists, and she shuddered. A few more and it dissipated, and she barely dodged aside as he punched the ground where she had just been hovering over.

"Your time has come, girl. If you won't come with me then I'll just have to destroy you."

"In your dreams," and suddenly Batman was behind Darkseid, plunging some sort of knife into the villain's back.

Darkseid howled in pain and lashed out, but Batman ducked and kicked him back. Grumbling, he rose again, removing the knife from his body.

"What the hell is this thing?"

"A specially crafted blade, made just for immortal and highly resistant beings. It dulls the senses."

Darkseid laughed. "So you say, but it doesn't seem to be working."

"Oh, it's working just fine," Superman spoke from behind Darkseid, and pounded him into the ground.

"You were always overconfident, too self absorbed to notice what others were doing. You didn't think you had killed me so easily, did you?"

"But I should have been able to sense you-"

"Your little encounter with Raven slowed you down a lot. You haven't been moving nearly as fast or hitting as hard as you were before. That's why I was able to land a hit on you."

"And now you're done for."

Superman began punching the god at a terrifying rate, striking with such force that the dirt below him flew up into the sky past the buildings around him. It went on and on for several minutes, all of Superman's rage, grief, and pain at the loss of his friends and the hurt to the League put into his punches. One thousand for each dead friend. It went on and on and he seemed to go berserk, until Batman came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Enough is enough, Clark," he whispered. "Get a hold of yourself. Clark!" One final, massive blow and he stopped, staring down at the fallen Darkseid. He turned.

"It's never enough, Bruce."

"I understand, but don't lose yourself in the process."

Superman nodded and turned as Raven drifted behind him. "You're not going to let him live, are you? I know you guys have your ideals and everything but-"

"You're right. We're not letting him live. This ends here and now."

"Then I'll take care of it," Raven muttered. "Give me a moment and I can destroy his body and his energy permanently. He'll never be able to return."

Dark energy began forming around them, centered about Darkseid himself, and a symbol became visible after a couple minutes. As the shadows grew, a terrifying chill encompassed the area and focused in on the god himself, then all of the shadows rushed toward him at once and he was gone. Warped out of reality. And then Raven collapsed, the effort of destroying Darkseid taking its toll on her body and mind.

"It's done," she whispered wearily, as Batman helped her back up into a sitting position. She turned her dark gaze on Superman, who was looking at her intently.

"Enough proof for you to trust me now?"

Superman folded his arms over his chest. "No. From one tyrant to another, they all hate each other. This doesn't make you innocent, but..." he closed his eyes. "I'm not unreasonable, you know. It doesn't make you guilty either. And I'm willing to see that you've risked your life to help us, no matter what your motives. So fine, I'll cast my vote. I say we don't need to monitor you so closely as was originally suggested. And I'm willing to bet that the others... well, at least Flash and Batman would agree with me."

Batman nodded.

"So, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say, you're free to go. On one condition."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

Superman looked at her darkly. "Do not go to the demon realms. Stay away from hell. You understand, it only makes it seem like you are consorting with them and we have to take it that way."

Raven was silent for a moment. _I can't do that. There's just no way... but if I tell them about the king of hell, will they even believe me? They don't even trust me. Won't they think that I'm just making it up as an excuse to go there... or as a farce, pretending that when the demons do invade, that it isn't me... they won't trust me. And I won't trust them either. I can't tell them about him. Besides, this isn't something ordinary mortals can stand up to, and I don't want to give any of them any ideas - if they knew about him, they would surely try to do something to stop him and probably end up dead. This problem has to be solved by demons alone. _

"I can't," she said softly, so quietly that her voice was lost in the wind.

"Excuse me?"

"I can't," she said a little more loudly, and then spun around as she sensed some people approach.

_The Titans. Jinx. _Her violet gaze met a pink eyed one and she saw the fear in the other girl's eyes. Disappointment welled up inside her. Both of them.

Superman frowned. "And why must you go there?"

"I can't tell you that either," she replied, still looking at Jinx. _Looks like they just won't trust me. Not that I expected them too. _"Look, it's clear that I have no place here anymore," Raven almost seemed to direct the words at the pink haired girl she was still staring at. She saw the other girl flinch and back away a little. "I get it. And if you want to consider me your enemy, fine, but you have no way to follow me anyway."

Black energy began swirling around her and a bitter chill emanated from it, so cold that everything around Raven began freezing. "I'll pack my things and go. Don't try to stop me."

Of course, Superman wasn't just going to stand around and do nothing, nor was he going to heed her words. He leapt forward, trying to grab a hold of her, but Raven raised a shield and blocked him off. A moment later, a portal opened beside her and she reached in, grabbing a backpack out of it. _Can't carry too much stuff with me. Just the essentials. Some clothes, some books, leaving everything else behind. Leaving- _she looked at Jinx again. _Leaving everything else behind. _

And then she shifted to look at Batman, whose expression was unreadable. "You'll see me again. Probably pretty soon, actually."

He nodded in reply and she smiled very slightly. He understood why. Maybe not the exact reason why, but he had a general idea.

The swirling energies around her intensified momentarily and everything went black, and then she was gone.


	19. Interlude III

Disclaimer: I don't own TT

Sorry, low motivation to do anything at all, including writing. This is all I could get out for now.

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

"Lilith," Raven gasped out, emerging from a portal and staggering over toward the demon queen's throne.

The dark haired lady rose immediately and caught Raven in her arms before the girl fell. A slight twitch at her eyes betrayed her worry, but otherwise her face remained smooth and impassive.

"Something happened."

Raven opened her mouth. And closed it. She breathed out silently and removed herself from Lilith's embrace, sitting on the ground in front of the icy throne. She closed her eyes, face betraying nothing of what she felt. Her dark eyes shifted beneath her eyelids and she breathed out silently again. Raven sat there, still, too still, too silent, too cold.

Shrouded sensation, muted emotions, contained chaos, everything repressed into the furthest reaches of her mind, away from all of her emotions' realms, away from everything.

Lilith's dark eyes gazed at the girl, but even she found it impossible to discern what she was thinking. She only got the sense of a terrible hollowness within her. As if she were no longer living, but just a robot that could only do what she was told. She sensed _nothing _from her. It almost felt like Raven had given up on living, except she didn't even have the will to kill herself any more.

_Why am I so worried about her anyway? It's not like me to care so much for a human -_

_A half demon as well, _she reminded herself, although it wasn't that either. There was something about Pride - Raven - that seemed so twisted, but in a distraught way, like she was terribly screwed up and needed help. And like Lilith was the only one who could help her... no, that wasn't true. There had been another who could have helped her... but she sensed that that bond had been broken. Was that why..?

Raven breathed silently, slowly, feeling the demon queen's eyes bore into her, still detached still...

Her eye twitched.

_Calm down. __Azarath metrion zinthos. Azarath metrion zinthos. _

Her mouth curved down.

_Just forget about it all. Forget and move on - _

_Yeah, keep telling yourself that. _

Her brow furrowed. A soft touch on the top of her head, cold as ice, freezing, cooling, soothing? Raven bit her lip so hard that she drew blood. She sat there and felt it drip down her chin, staining the blue ice beneath her with the rich red color.

Lilith frowned and stroked the girl's hair softly, siphoning away the pain radiating off of her mind. _For your own sake as much as mine, you cannot be traumatized by whatever happened. _

Raven breathed in and out slowly.

"No!" She screamed suddenly, and the massive chamber was steeped in darkness. A powerful whirlwind stormed up, tearing through the icy surroundings, raging furiously into the sky.

Black energy streamed out of Raven's eyes and her mouth was opened in a silent scream, her body spread eagle, suspended in midair by the sheer force of the wind around her. As the energy raged on, it tore open the top of the ice palace and streamed up high into the sky, engulfing the entire area in a lightless void. Lilith walked forward, struggling against the tempest of ice and wind, slowly making her way toward the girl floating in the air.

Time seemed to slow as she broke through the barrier of darkness surrounding Raven, then floated slowly up through the dense wind. The air itself felt so heavy that even Lilith had a hard time breathing, let alone move through it. Robes billowing around her, Lilith frowned with the effort of moving up and raised an arm over her eyes, blocking the wind from blowing shards of ice into her face.

"Raven," her voice cut through the noise of the furious gale and she drew close enough to put a hand on her head.

Raven's eyes closed for a moment and the energy faded slightly. Then, she opened her eyes and blinked a couple times, breathing out in short gasps. As the wind died down, she and Lilith floated back down to the devastated room, landing on a pile of snow. Raven knelt down and held her head in her hands.

"I'm... sorry... I-"

Lilith closed her eyes as well. "You are human," she said darkly. "I understand... you need such things, love, companionship, something to relieve you from the potent despair your demon side provides you. When such things are lost... you, as a human, cannot take it."

"No. I shouldn't have lost control like that. I... now look at what I've done..."

"This?" Lilith looked around, dark, glimmering eyes taking in the destruction. As large as her throne room was - or had been, Raven had managed to destroy the whole thing along with several adjacent rooms and the ceiling as well. "A fair amount of damage," she murmured. "Although to destroy these walls is not as easy as you might think. You are getting stronger after all." She gestured and suddenly, water condensed down from the air to reform the graceful blue walls of the ice palace and the throne suspended in midair, high above them. As the ceiling grew toward the center, closing off the night sky from their view, Lilith once again looked down at Raven.

"But you are not just human, Pride. Demon blood courses through your veins as well. You must be strong. You _are _strong. You have to be. Don't give in to-"

"I-I need some time to think," Raven gasped out, moving into a sitting position again. "Do you... have a place where I could be alone?"

Lilith raised an eyebrow. "Need to vent?"

Raven shook her head. "No... no... I... just need to be alone. I'm sorry. I won't lose control-"

"Stop beating yourself up," Lilith replied smoothly. "I know you must feel _awful _right now. It must be difficult for you to deal with it. I'm not even saying you should pull yourself together yet. Do what you need to do."

"Stop being an idiot," Raven squeezed her eyes tightly shut and held back all of her emotions once more. "I can handle it... I hope," she whispered.

Lilith nodded. "I've showed you many of the places here. Any one of them is fine. They're all my private rooms. Nobody will bother you."

Raven murmured a word of thanks and disappeared into a dark portal.

* * *

_Void - Hell_

"Sonya-"

"Yes, lord. I am here." The demon queen approached from the other side of the walkway.

An empty realm, pitch black, lightless, lifeless, a mass of enormous, rocky platforms that rose up from a bottomless abyss, connected by thin pathways which stretched precariously over the void beneath. The only light came from fires lit on the grotesque buildings that sat atop the rock platforms, strange constructs of dark rock and glowing opalescent matter between, like some sort of alien hive. A shadowy realm darker, in a way, than Sonya's own domain of darkness. The void. Not only the absence of light, but the absence of everything, except for those mysterious buildings and their fires that barely lit the oppressive gloom.

"Sonya," he repeated, his voice toneless and neutral. It was whispery, light, almost without presence, a breath of airless wind in the crepuscular black. Strange. One would have thought that he might have seemed more imposing, like some otherworldly god - well, he was - but there was nothing in his stature that spoke of that. Just another demon.

He might have only been Sonya's height, just a couple inches taller than Raven, a slight figure that could have come across as feminine if one did not look closely. But the voice that spoke again was clearly and distinctly male.

"The girl... she is... unpleasant."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you not feel it? She is dangerous. I want you to look into this. Make sure Lilith knows we are watching her."

"But she is only a mortal-"

"It matters not who or what she is. You _will _do what I order."

"Yes, lord."

The tone of his voice had not changed, but Sonya knew better than to question his reasoning. She had seen how, without a second glance, he had completely obliterated those who had pushed him too far, without even any sign of anger or distress, he had cast them into the void, never to return. He was almost like the void in that sense, seemingly feeling nothing, completely emotionless.

"Is there... something you needed from me?"

"No," Sonya replied smoothly, hiding her discomfort.

He sensed that he instilled fear in her, he sensed that she followed him only because she did not want him to destroy her, or even run the risk of it. No matter what her views on mortals or her natural cruelty, those were not the reasons for her joining his cause.

They said that one who ruled by fear was also one in the most danger of falling to those who he ruled over. Once that fear was gone... but in this case, he was not even openly threatening. A simple, polite request to join his cause. If not, then he merely pulled some strings and had those who would oppose him vanish. Everyone knew it was his doing, of course, but nobody wanted to be the one to fight him. It was a fear that they had instilled in themselves, not as a direct cause of what he did.

"Lord Shahaar," she murmured.

"What are you to do about her? Nothing." He answered her unspoken question. "Not until we know for sure what Lilith is up to. I do not wish to antagonize her yet, and even if I could have her easily... deposed... she could also prove to be a useful ally."

"Yes, lord."

Oh yes, he knew about their fear and why they followed him, in hopes of not being destroyed. Of course, he also didn't share with them his true plan, in which they would all be destroyed anyway. Funny how foolish a bunch of demon lords could be. Well, except for Lilith, he would give her credit for that. Still, they would all fall in the end. He would make sure of it.

* * *

_Two days later - Ice palace_

"I want to talk with her."

"No. Definitely not now."

Sonya sighed in frustration. "And suppose I were to force you to?"

Lilith chose not to reply.

Sonya's eyes narrowed. "Fine. I'll go find her myself." She paused. "Unless you'd like to stop me."

"Have fun."

_I'm sorry. I don't want her to bother you... or me... but I can't do anything about it. Not yet. Do be careful around her... _

_What?_

_You'll see, if she actually decides to talk to you. I'm sorry, I know you're upset, but I can't stop her-_

_I guess I'll just have to deal with it._

"You seem oddly nonchalant about this."

Lilith's blinked and broke off the link with Raven. "Do I? Well, I have nothing to hide. She is simply upset right now."

"Because she is a weak human," Sonya hissed. "I still don't know why you keep her company. There are so many others-"

"From other realms. None of my own-"

"She is _Trigon's _daughter-"

"He does not care for her. And she acts nothing like him. She is on her own. She does not belong anywhere-"

"Except back in her miserable human world."

"They would not accept her. She is half demon."

"And she is half human. How can you accept her here? Look, Lilith, I'm telling you, you should get rid of her before _he _starts to poke his nose into your realm. Anything odd, anything out of place, and the chances of that happening increase vastly!"

"And since when did you care so much about me?"

Sonya smirked. "We have to watch out for each other in these times, or who else will? I help you now, maybe you will help me later."

"You sure have a way of seeming to be... helpful."

The crimson haired demon frowned. "I _am _doing this for you though. I don't see a point in having him destroy you and take over your realm."

"Then what's the difference in destroying those mortals and conquering them?"

"Because they're just mortals," she replied, as if it were obvious. "What are they worth? Nothing at all. You see the way they act, the way they treat each other. And you see how useless they are. We are the highborn among _demons. _What are they compared to us?"

_Since when did you get so high and mighty? _"If you say so. I still refuse to take part in it."

"That's fine. That's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I'm not going to _get rid of her, _as you put it. Go talk to her if you like, and if _he _pokes his nose into my business, fine. I told you, I have nothing to hide."

"And if he decides you are a threat and eliminates you?"

A ghost of a smile on Lilith's lips. "Then it seems as if there is nothing I can do about that. If you really want to help me, you'll tell him that there's nothing here for him-"

"As if I have any sway on his mind. I can only predict what he thinks. And not very well at that."

Lilith sighed. "This discussion is pointless. Just go do whatever you like. But you won't change my mind."

Sonya frowned deeply. "Fine. Your head is at stake, not mine."

* * *

A few minutes later, Sonya emerged from a portal and found herself in another one of the ice palace's many rooms. She stepped out quietly and looked around.

It was another vast, cavernous room that seemed to be mostly empty, except for a small pool of water in the center, which for some reason had not been frozen over in the intense cold. The only light in the room came from the water it self, which glowed faintly, dimly lighting the darkness with its aquamarine hue. In front of her, crouched over the edge of the pool a girl was drawing circles in the water with her finger.

Even though Sonya was a demon noble and the queen of her own realm in hell, she got the sense that there was something a little... off about the girl, like she wasn't to be trifled with. A strange aura about her that did not befit a human at all.

_Originally I had planned to mess with her a little... see just how human she was, but she doesn't seem to have that disgusting mortal quality about her. Steeped in darkness as we are. _A small smirk crossed Sonya's lips.

_Interesting... _She observed the girl for a little while, watching the extreme rigidity of the patterns of her motions, the precise circle that she drew with her finger in the water, how she didn't even tremble a little, the stern, foreboding air about her. And even more curious, the pitch black cloak that shrouded her, covering her entire body, rendering her darker than the queen of darkness herself, a shadow blacker than the void around her. Imposing, even hunched over as she was, but pain radiating from her every pore, it seemed as well.

Sonya frowned and tried to sense the girl's emotions. A swirl of sensations came into her mind as she closed her eyes, a mass of emotions from outside of the room, a huge flow of information that was so massive that she could not decipher any of them at all. She focused in further and blotted them all out. _Strange... I can't sense anything from her at all. But Lilith said that she was distraught. Shouldn't I be able to sense something from her? Anything? _

She frowned deeply and tried to force her way into Raven's mind again. This time, she sensed the block that the girl had erected against her and tried to break through it, but found that it held firm. Puzzled, she tried again, only to find it retaliate against her and seem to knock her back, causing her to stagger backward a few steps.

"Insolent brat," she muttered to herself. _Although I'm surprised that she's strong enough to block me out. Perhaps she is not the useless human that I thought she would be. Though, still no match for the master either. Still, I suppose she could potentially be a threat in the future. Is Lilith really planning to use her to- _

"Human," she walked closer to the girl, who seemed to ignore her. "What are you doing here? Why have you come?"

A short pause. "No... longer... a human..." Raven murmured, almost as if in a trance. "No longer... a part of me. That world... has forsaken me. And... I have... forsaken it."

"But you are no demon either."

"Am I not?"

Sonya frowned. "You cling to those pitiful feelings of attachment and endearment, calling them necessities to your existence, and you think you can become a demon that way? You are still steeped in your pathetic mortal ways, girl."

"Then what is the demon way?"

"Strength of will, in all forms. Which you mortals so clearly lack."

Raven frowned but didn't turn, hiding her face from the demon queen. _Gotta control my temper. Can't lose it around her. __  
_

"Mortals aren't worthless," she whispered.

Sonya laughed curtly. "So you would defend them even after they have... as you put it, forsaken you? Let me guess. You found someone you loved. Something you never thought you'd ever experience, with who you are. You thought they cared for you and you cared for them. Then you found out that this person betrayed you, never actually thought much of you to begin with. Just trash to be manipulated and used for their purposes. So now you feel alone. Am I right?"

Raven closed her eyes. "You make it sound so simple-"

"It is. It's always the same with you mortals-"

"Mortals aren't as simple as you make them out to be," Raven kept her voice icy and distant, but felt a heated fury rise within dare she make fun of humans - all mortals like that? What did she know about them? Pretentious demon lord, one who had never seen anything besides the nine circles of hell, and she presumed that she knew everything about mortals? Really...

"And they aren't as complicated as you'd like to think they are."

Raven let out a low hiss. "And who are you to judge them?"

"Ah, right," Sonya smirked a little. "I have not introduced myself. Queen of darkness and the seventh circle of hell, Lady Sonya. I would offer you a hand in greeting, as you mortals do it, but we do things a little differently here in the demon world."

"I know," Raven grumbled.

A dark shadow emanated from her, equally as the one that rose from Sonya's body, and the two met midway between them. A brush of both of their soulselves, a mark of acknowledgement, recognition of the other in their first formal meeting. It was a way for all powerful demons to imprint the sense of another into their minds so that they would not forget one that they met.

Sonya smiled. "Ah yes, I was wrong about you. You are very much the demon, it seems. Your mortal side holds little sway over you, at least at this moment. Then there is no problem after all."

_The problem is with your way of thinking, not with me, idiot. Just because I'm more demon-like doesn't make me better than any human. Everything has its flaws. _

"Really now?" Raven struggled to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"Well, you seem to be more powerful than I had originally thought. I can see why Lilith tolerates your presence."

_Not just because I'm strong, you know, even though I'm actually really weak compared to you guys. For a lot of other reasons, too. One of them being that she's not a cold hearted bitch like_ you.

"And that is why I'm extending this offer to you. There are things that you do not know about yet, things that could prove to be very... useful to you. If you wish, I can show you what I'm talking about."

_The demon king. I already know about him. And if everyone under him acts like you do, hell if I join him while I'm still alive._

"I didn't come here to do anything," Raven remarked as mildly as she could. "I just wanted a safe haven. Somewhere where I could gather my thoughts in peace. You understand, the mortal realm can sometimes have overwhelming emotions and I couldn't handle them. And Lilith - kindly - gave me refuge."

Sonya raised an eyebrow. "And you expect me to believe that?"

"Well, why else would I come? It's not like there's anything here for me besides that. And my father's not exactly the family type of guy, you know."

The demon queen smirked a little at that comment. "No, he isn't. I can see why you did not go to him for refuge. I hear you two are not exactly... the best of friends. Especially not after that little incident a while back."

"I... don't really like him. But I'm not stupid, you know. There's no way I'd be able to fight any of you demon lords or any of the demon nobles. I'm not here to undermine your authority or anything, if that's what you're worried about."

Sonya frowned and looked at the girl's figure carefully, trying to detect any sign of a lie, something that would give away her real intentions. There was simply no way it was just for refuge, and Lilith wasn't the type to simply help someone out like that out of the blue. There had to be something else... but Raven's block was too powerful for her to simply phase through, undetected. She would have to force her way in and that would be... unpleasant.

"We'll keep in touch," Sonya grumbled, and disappeared in a dark portal once more.

Raven continued drawing circles in the pool of water for another minute before turning around and slamming a fist on the ground. That demoness was probably the most annoying demon she had met. Even more than her father. _Stupid demon lords looking down on humans. I don't know which of them I hate more. Trigon, who only wants to destroy everything because he doesn't care, or this 'Lady Sonya', who thinks we're overly sentimental and emotionally weak. How dare she judge something she doesn't even know well! _

Raven slammed her fist on the ground again and clenched her teeth together. She just hated it it when someone thought of humans as nothing more than ants to be crushed or as weak, pitiful creatures that needed something to bring order to their thoughts. Humans were _fine _by themselves, and their ability to not give up and keep fighting in the face of unthinkable odds was almost unparalleled. No, they weren't perfect, but... Raven frowned. _Still better creatures than you are. And definitely worth saving. _

Raven gathered her resolve. _Definitely worth more than you, someone so self absorbed that she can't even see anything good in anyone else. There's no way I'm joining you. I'm going to stop you and save Earth and everyone on it, even if they supposedly hate me, even if they would betray me without a second thought - Jinx... _Raven sighed, closing her eyes. _What are people worth, anyway? Ultimately each mortal race is only a tiny speck in the huge timestream of all races throughout the universe. If humans were to all perish, what would it matter? In the grand scheme of things, it would mean nothing._

_Maybe Sonya was right. Maybe-_

_How can you think that way? How can you give in so easily? How can you allow someone so cruel and so blind rule over your heart? You know they are wrong, Raven. You know that you are worth something and it's not to be found in joining a cause that's completely horrible to begin with-_

_Except I am worthless. She said so too. All of those **humans **think so, and even Jinx-_

_That's not true, and you know it! You're just looking for an excuse to mope-_

_Not really. There's nothing I can do anymore. Why don't we just let it all happen and-_

_Raven. What's wrong with you? Since when were you so weak willed? Since when have you just stood by and let everything happen? I always thought you were a fighter._

_Well you thought wrong. _Raven clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, preventing any tears from falling. _I'm not strong. I'm weak. As weak as they come. I can't do anything. I-_

_Don't you think you're a little too hurt over Jinx 'betraying' you? She never even intended to do that in the first place anyway. She might have been wrong, and it might have been her fault, but it's not the end of the world-_

_I'm not overreacting. _

_Maybe you are. Or maybe not. But you've borne worse than this before. I mean, come on. Who was the one so fiercely defending mortals, at least in her mind, just a moment ago? And now you're willing to give up on that? _

Raven was silent.

_Well? _

_I have to ask myself, who do I hate more? Myself, or the demon king and those who serve him? And Trigon... _

_Maybe you should stop being self deprecating for once. Be a little more confident-_

_That will never happen. Confidence..._

_Okay, maybe not confident. But do what you have to do._

_I don't have to do anything. It's whether I want to or not. _

_Then what do you want? _

_I've asked myself that a lot. I've also asked myself if what I want really matters. _

_Go with your heart, is what they say. It's all you can do in this case. Nobody's telling you to do anything. It's all up to you. Are you ready to see the world go up in flame yet? Or do you want to stop it? _

_I... _Raven thought hard. Her once friends, the Titans. Nightwing. Batman... Jinx... the whole world. And the rest of the universe and universes, vast, unexplored, was all of those things getting destroyed worth her being a little... dramatic? She didn't know if they matter or not, in the grand scheme, but she also felt like they were more important than her little single, measly life, at least. If she could sacrifice herself to save them, even if she didn't exactly like them, well, maybe she had made herself useful somehow. That was what she wanted, right? To be useful in some way.

_I have to stop them. _

Raven rose and gathered her cloak around her, fading away into the shadows.


	20. Wings of Scorn

Disclaimer: I don't own TT

A little... not up to my desired quality, but I rushed to get this chapter out, otherwise I'd have lost my motivation to write and kept you guys waiting another week. Well, hope you enjoy -

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

"It has been three weeks. Do you feel ready?"

"I wonder if I'll ever feel ready. If it's ever possible to be ready. You realize if they catch me-"

"My head on it. I knew that from the start. But it's you that I'm worried about-"

"I do not fear death."

"There are many things worse than death they could do to you."

She closed her eyes and her brow furrowed. It was silent for a while, but the demon queen waited patiently. She knew it was difficult for the girl. As a human, who needed friends, support from others, someone to help her, and then as a demon, who was dark, moody, empathic, and alone. She never could get what she needed. What she wanted was never what she got. Always selflessly fighting for others.

The girl's eyes opened. "It matters not. They couldn't do anything worse to me than what this hell of a world has already done."

"Are you sure?"

She closed her eyes again. "It doesn't matter. I have to do it, don't I? There's no time for me to second guess myself before I've even started."

"True. Then you'll take my message to Niseian?"

"Yeah, we'll see how it turns out. And if I don't come back..."

The demon queen's eyes glimmered darkly. "You will."

"You have that much confidence in me?"

"Child," she said softly, then thought better of it. "You are stronger than you believe you are. You don't need to hope for the better or even believe in yourself, but just know that you're capable of everything I ask of you."

The girl took a deep breath. "Then I'm off."

* * *

_Void - Sepulcher _

"Lord-"

Sonya stopped in her tracks and ducked behind a corner. Luckily, she concealed her presence quickly enough that neither of the two figures there seemed to notice her, but one could never be too sure, so she backed away a little and instead projected her soulself toward their general direction, then suppressed all of the energy radiating from her. Hopefully now they wouldn't detect her.

She got an image of Lord Shahaar - a mere black shadow, his usual self - standing, or maybe floating, in the hall, facing another figure. It was that one that frightened her so, a monstrosity lit by the dim blue lights of the black halls of the building.

A construct of pitch black, from the outside and inside, barely a silhouette against the nothingness of the void around it, revealed by the fires burning atop it. And within, in the mesh of black metallic material and blue organic pods, the labyrinth of black halls led to several different, huge caverns, endless spiraling staircases, falling deep into the black pillar on which it sat, and when one looked closely, it was not just rock, but something constructed out of refined metal and unrefined ore, similar to the stuff with which the building was made out of.

Sometimes the halls would lead into massive caverns, with black metallic floors and odd pillars that seemed to absorb what little light the blue pods emitted, with several holes in the ground that seemed to drop into the abyss. Many smaller openings in the walls led off from the main chamber, undoubtedly housing the various creatures - she wasn't sure if they could even be called demons anymore - that Sonya had seen.

But nothing like this one.

It did not _appear _to be a monster. No, almost an angel, an imposing figure floating in the air, suspended by two pairs of blood red wings, but otherwise shrouded in a veil of what appeared to be deep crimson. Dark, rich colors, as the demons were supposed to like, but this thing gave off a filthy aura, like blood and gore, not death but decay, the lifeblood of the living rotting away, not quite dying, then resurrected, and decomposing again.

Its movements were slow as it gestured around, although still faster than Lord Shahaar's own - when he even appeared to be moving at all. "Lord," its voice seemed to be a ghastly rasp.

"Zauberin," he whispered back. "Take off that infernal mask, will you?"

"Yes, lord."

The figure's hand rose up and removed a black plate covering its face, casting it to the ground. Sonya's eyes widened.

She recognized her as one of the demon nobles belonging to the realm she ruled, one of the very powerful ones who had simply not cared about ruling over her own realm, so she had not usurped the sovereignty of another. Sonya remembered her as the one who was always alone, staring into the darkness of her realm, enthralled. A strange girl, she had thought, though by demon standards nothing out of the ordinary. But now...

Sonya frowned. Frightening.

In place of her normal dark red hair were black tendrils, thin sleek tubes, seemingly made out of some black metal. Her skin had paled into a pallid red, a hue more similar to human skin tone, only it was more of a solid pink than anything else. Thin black lines ran through her skin, forming square intersections with each other, marring the otherwise smooth flesh. Her eyes were a solid black, like miniature voids within her head, and her lips had darkened into a similar color, although if one looked closely there was still some sign of red about them.

Her face was very narrow and gaunt, her chin shaped into a sharp point, devilish, almost skeletal.

"Master-" Without the mask, her voice was smoother, low and malevolent.

"You will bide your time here, Zauberin. I will not have you risk destroying yourself by forcing your way into the mortal dimension. Eager though you may be-"

"You allowed Bael and Morno to try."

"They were... expendable. You are not. You are the strongest among those who serve me."

"They survived-"

"Nearly died," he corrected her. "As it is, they are still recovering. We will wait until the armies are prepared and the other demon lords agree to support me. There is no need to take unnecessary risks."

Zauberin bowed her head. "As you wish. Though about that girl-"

"What of her? I thought I told you to leave her alone for now."

"I have not touched her. But I feel as if Sonya is not doing her job - she should be able to give us more information about the girl than just a few things she told her-"

"Sonya is not weak, though she is not strong as the few of you whom I have bestowed with new power. She told me that there was no way she could simply force her way into the girl's mind, at least not without great risk to herself. Even if you are more powerful than she is, I find it unlikely that you could break in where she could not."

"Then you will have to do it yourself."

The shadowy figure put a hand to its chin. "Possibly. But the mind is something not so easily manipulated, unlike reality. It is difficult to dissect another who is experienced in such things. We will have to deal with her later if she means to stop us."

Zauberin raised an eyebrow. "You think she has enough potential to be able to defeat you in battle?"

"No, but caution cannot hurt in this case. I have no need to overestimate myself or underestimate her. Why don't you go to Sonya and have her follow the girl for a while."

"Why not me?"

"Because her powers of stealth are still greater than yours. I know you only wish to please me, but that does not mean you have to do everything."

Zauberin frowned but did not press the matter further. "As you wish, Lord Shahaar. I will go tell her now."

Sonya withdrew her soulself back into her body and opened her eyes. _Good thing they didn't detect me. Now at least I'll be prepared to meet her face to face. It will take some time getting used to that foul aura that she gives off. He... there's no other way to put it... he's made her into a monster... _

She frowned, slightly disturbed. Just slightly.

* * *

_Earth - Titans' Tower _

"She's moping again..."

"She's been like that for a whole week. If I didn't know better, I'd say she turned into Raven-"

"Our 'friend' Raven does not deserve someone like her. She should get over her and move on-"

"Star, Raven did nothing wrong. What's your problem with her?"

The alien girl sighed. "On my world, there are no such things as a 'second chance'. We do not tolerate the presence of those that betray their friends. I thought I told you this already-"

"Yeah, but this is Earth. And besides, we weren't exactly the best of friends to her either-"

"She was wrong, but we were wrong too. Nobody was right. Get over it," Beast Boy broke in. "All of that, it's not important right now. What we should be doing is helping the people who are here right now, rather than talking about someone who's not."

"Agreed," Nightwing muttered. "I'm worried about her. Even if some of us," Nightwing glanced at Starfire, who merely glared back at him, and then at Terra, who held her hands up as if to say she had done nothing wrong, "don't like Raven, she's still important to Jinx. We've made the mistake of not helping a friend before and it's... cost us." He decided not to say what was actually on his mind. "Let's not do it again."

"Actually I think Raven's okay," Terra muttered. "Just a little... unfriendly. Jinx is pretty cool though."

"Then go try to cheer her up-"

"Whoa, hold on there. I'm not good at that type of stuff. Shouldn't you be like sending BB or something? I'm not exactly the... sympathetic type?"

"A little rough around the edges," Cyborg agreed, though he obviously didn't mean it too critically. Just an observation. "Alright. Fine, if none of you wants to do it, I'll go talk to her."

"Wait, we'll go together-"

"No, this will go better if only one of us goes at a time. Jinx might seem social and all that, but she's actually more like Raven than you'd think."

"Fine. Good luck dude."

* * *

Jinx stood up from behind the doorway as she heard their conversation end and moved quickly toward the elevator, taking care not to be seen by any of the others. It wasn't like she didn't appreciate their sentiments, she just didn't want to be talked to, that was all.

Now that she thought about it, in a lot of ways she was like Raven. Over the years, she had maintained a careful facade of having that "bubbly" personality, and although she did feel happy sometimes, the person she was at her core was someone who simply didn't fit in.

She had always been quite distraught because of that, though she tended not to show it. Someone who nobody could understand, who nobody could seem to sympathize with, she had become a villain because well, she wasn't exactly a hero, was she? And the only way she could make something of herself, to be _useful _was to be a really good bad guy, if that made sense. Of course, it turned out that the villains understood her no better than the heroes did, which she never expected them too, but at least they treated her nicely and she felt like she somewhat had a place where she fit in.

But then very few of them - actually strike that, none of them - would have understood that she didn't really care about hurting people and she didn't care about the money and jewels that they stole. She had only done it because, well, everyone else had. So that was why she had left them when Kid Flash had come to her and seemed to care about her.

She had been elated, of course. Someone who made her feel important, simply because he seemed to care about her. And his speech about how she didn't need to be a villain, how she could do good things, how she could be a _hero... _she, of course, eventually realized how foolish she had been. What was 'doing good'? What was 'being a hero'?

Apparently, she wasn't capable of it. At first, Kid Flash had been nice, but his tolerance for her 'grey area' things had been limited, and after a while, he felt like she just wasn't a hero anymore. Of course he was willing to give her a chance, but if she wasn't a hero at heart, then she also wasn't welcome.

And then there was Raven.

Had anyone ever understood her so well?

They were like each other. Both trying to find their place, a purpose in life. Although, Raven was even more twisted than she was, probably because she was half demon. Jinx had her moments where she was actually kind of happy, or at least where she felt okay - those were the times when she was the center of attention, the one smirking and taunting everyone else.

Apparently Raven used to be somewhat like that too - she had a good sense of humor, and though she was never the center of attention, she apparently often crack jokes at everyone else, if she was in the mood for it. But now, she was just miss doom and gloom. Not that Jinx could blame her. She understood what the other girl had to deal with. It was no wonder Raven was the way she was, but...

Despite all that, Raven had a way of being affectionate with those that she cared about, not in a romantic way, but she did show that she cared. That type of thing, coming from her... it made one feel really special.

And by the same token, her hatred made one feel awful. Like they were scum, the worst possible beings on Earth or any other world. They said that hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn. Well, that may or may not have been true, but it certainly didn't match Raven's scorn. Jinx was willing to dive into the pits of hell, if only she could get Raven to trust her again.

Sitting on the beach, she found herself thinking about her once friend again.

They told her to let Raven go. Like, they hadn't even really loved each other or anything. They were _just friends. _As Raven had put it. And as Jinx had agreed. So what was the big deal? Friends came and went, right? And even if she didn't have people who understood her, they at least cared about her right now. At least, until she did something that upset them, like kill people, but Jinx didn't really have qualms about killing those who deserved it anyway. Or theft, but she had gotten past the age where she felt the need to steal stuff just for the sake of doing it. Or losing control over _her powers, _gosh, that must have been a line that Raven used quite a lot. More than Jinx had, certainly, but the same thing applied to her.

Bad luck was, well, bad luck. If she didn't put enough power into her hexes, they would do nothing. But if she put even just a little too much, really bad things could happen, especially to normal people, who already had a relatively high chance of dying at any given moment.

But then again, murder was murder, and she could not deny that either. No matter what the reason, if she killed someone, that person was dead by her hand. That was why she had ended up upsetting Kid Flash before - she had accidentally used too much force against normal human criminals and killed several. And he had lectured her about how heroes weren't supposed to kill, as if she had intended to do so in the first place, and how they were not the law, as if she was presuming to be the one to judge others.

_Screw it all. I just want Raven to come back... _Jinx looked into the sky. _Where are you? Probably somewhere dangerous. What are you doing? Probably something dangerous. Who - you're always alone, aren't you? I could have been there for you. I want to be there for you. But you no longer trust me. _She almost wanted to laugh, it sounded so pathetic to her. _I'm horrible, aren't I? I mean, how much needier can someone get?_

_And how much stupider could I have been? I knew this would happen. Still screwed up, though. Yep, that's me. I'm Jinx, miss screw everything up and hope it all turns out okay in the end. Does it ever?_

_Nope. Not really. _

Jinx turned around as she heard someone approach behind her, and mentally sighed to herself as she saw who it was.

"Friend, we were seeking you."

Jinx was quiet for a moment before responding. "I... appreciate the effort, Star, but I know you don't like Raven. You probably can't help me."

Starfire frowned. "But that surely does not concern you-"

"I know, you don't understand. Please, just leave me alone."

"Jinx-"

"Please!" Jinx's voice was edgy, distraught.

Starfire's brows furrowed. "What do you see in her that we do not? Is she not just some demon-"

Jinx sighed. "I know you don't get it. And with that temper of yours, you'd be unlikely to ever forgive her or see past the ice princess mask she puts on."

"She betrayed us-"

"Yes, I know. I've heard that many times."

Starfire closed her eyes. "I am not stupid either, Jinx. I know that she is not as bad as I pretend she is."

"Then why can't you forgive her?!" Jinx practically yelled at her. "Maybe if you guys had been a bit friendlier, she wouldn't have felt so unwelcome and-"

"I know that. It must have been hard for you."

"Then why did you do it?!"

"Raven does not belong with us. We are not her friends anymore. We cannot be because cannot understand her. So we cannot pretend to be her friends again and let her down when she finds out that she is just... different from us. I know how I would feel if the people I thought were my friends did not understand me at all."

"But... maybe just the illusion of friendship - oh what the hell am I saying? Now I sound like Raven."

"Friend," Starfire smiled at her. "Please, do not be mad at me. I do not hate Raven as much as it seems I do. It is for her own good as much as for ours. She does not belong with us. Her place is somewhere else."

"With me," Jinx whispered to herself. "Maybe."

"You belong with us, friend."

Jinx frowned at that statement. "I don't think you understand me as well as you think you do. I- I'm not exactly who I seem. That's why Kid Flash-"

"You are not Raven," Starfire said slowly. "She does not belong with us not because she is in that... 'grey area' as Nightwing called it... but because she... is a demon. She is just... different."

"Moodier? Angrier? More destructive? Murderous? Yeah, I get that. You're forgetting that I was a wanted criminal not too long back."

"It has been years since you were that way. And you were never a killer like some people were." - Slade came to mind. Starfire smiled again. "I know, I know, you are not quite like us either. But you are still very much human, unlike Raven. We are here to support you."

"And not her?"

"I do not think we could, even if we wanted to."

"Better to let her go, huh? I don't think I'm ready for that."

"But maybe you should consider that she is not right for you?"

Jinx's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Starfire looked away, blushing slightly. "It was pretty obvious. On my planet, two people who acted like that toward each other would be considered... lovers?"

The pink haired girl's face turned completely red. "I never thought of her that way! We were just-"

"Then why can you not let her go? If she is that important to you-"

_Is she? Or are we really just friends. If we are, then can't I just move on? _

_Well, Star's definitely wrong about one thing. Raven's just as human as I am. And any of us. She needs support just like we do. Even if it's just a little. _Jinx sighed. _What do I do? _

"It is clear to me that you do not wish to forsake her yet. You believe she is your... friend, yes? But then you cannot just sit around and be sad that she is gone. Either you pursue her or you do not. We will be happy to help you whichever way you choose."

"Or I could just sit around and be depressed about it-"

"Trust me. I have seen Raven do it many times. It is not... pleasant. Even if I do not like her."

Jinx closed her eyes. "I guess you're right. Thanks Star."

Starfire detected the lifelessness in the girl's voice, but decided not to press the matter. Sometimes things were best worked out by oneself, and as long as she had given Jinx something to think about, she had done something at least. Although she was pleasantly surprised when Jinx gave her a slight smile and got up, and then slipped her hand into Starfire's own, squeezing it slightly.

_Maybe Star is right. Maybe they don't need to understand me fully to be my friends. But for someone like Raven, who they don't get at all, it's impossible. I don't see why they don't understand her though. She's dark, yeah, but after being around her for a bit, you get to appreciate it, ya know? Like... hmm. Or maybe it's just me, but I like her destructive side. I guess they wouldn't because they're heroes, though. _

_I probably do, though, because I'm bad luck. They get that part of me, and accept it. Maybe because it's in my powers or something, or I don't know. So why are they always unfair to her? I mean, it's not like she purposely kills innocent people. Maybe it's her bad temper. Or her unfriendliness - but I wonder why she was so nice to me? _

_Not anymore. _

_It's not her fault. It's mine. I screwed up. And I have to fix it. When she comes back - will she? She seemed pretty upset the last time she saw me. More upset than I've ever seen her before, almost, except for when Nightwing shot her-_

_Life's really unfair to Raven, isn't it? I almost wouldn't be surprised if she's abandoned this world and moved on... but that's not her style. She'll be back. And when she does come... I'll have to make it up to her somehow. _

_Or I could go try to find her in hell, but... that would be suicide._

_Raven, you know that I'd give my life for you. I'm not a saint or anything, I wouldn't die for other people, but you... there's something special about you. I'll find out what it is eventually. _

* * *

_Swamp - Niseian's realm _

Raven appeared through a dark portal and landed on the soft ground of what seemed to be wet grass. Frowning, she looked at the ground more closely, and found that it was some sort of algae, strange, considering it was hell. Looking around, she saw nothing but a vast, shadowed forest with bubbling ponds of green liquid, probably water infested with plant life, dense vines blocking out whatever light might have come from above, but otherwise the place seemed to be empty. Raven sighed.

_She said it would be easy to find him. How am I supposed to know where he is in this mess? Guess I better start looking. _

"Azarath metrion zinthos," she whispered, and began floating off of the ground. With her eyes closed, she could detect the magical energies around her better, and soon, glowing green dots began appearing around her, each one representing a different creature of some sort. Most of them were tiny, just the plant life around her, although there were several larger balls of light beneath the water, so there was something living inside. Off in the distance, she sensed stronger entities, probably demons, though still no sign of the demon lord himself. Unless he was that weak... she recalled he was supposedly number four in terms of strength, though anyone below seven, Sonya, was of no importance anyway. Or so they said.

Well, she doubted that he'd only be as strong as a normal demon. He had to be somewhere. Maybe hiding his presence, though Raven was generally very good at detecting things.

She had trained for like what, maybe a couple months total with Lilith? Though it didn't seem like a lot, the process of unlocking one's powers came in short bursts rather than in pure hard training, unlike one might have expected. It wasn't just hard work, though hard work was involved, no, there was no slow climb to power, slow gain of strength. It was like a switch. Once it was flipped, it was there. Instantaneously she got it, although the work up to that point might have been harsh.

Such as the years she had spent fighting her emotions and her demon. Or her father. Or everything and everyone around her. It might have been accurate to say her whole life had been spent preparing for some tremendous gains. And now... well, she was there.

She didn't have a good measure on her own power, but after a certain point, it wasn't necessarily about raw force, rather about how one used it. Raven, for example, didn't have quite as much energy as her father, not yet anyway, but the way she was able to infiltrate and mess with an enemy's mind was almost unparalleled. Everyone was vulnerable in some way, even a supposedly hardened demon lord.

Another one of her strong points was detection and stealth. She seemed to have an affinity for more utility type powers than simply overcoming someone through brute force. It meant that it was more difficult for her to face someone head on, without some element of surprise, but if she had it...

The point was, she should have been able to detect this guy unless someone else very powerful was hiding him or he had had warning of her coming and had escaped. In either case, Raven was in trouble.

As a safety precaution, she cut off all flows of magic exiting her body, concealing her presence completely, and began walking toward where she had detected all the demons before.

* * *

The swamp seemed to extend on forever. Even in her soulself form, flying through the trees ten times faster than she could normally fly with her powers, she seemed to be getting nowhere. It was always the case with these swamps, some sort of weird illusion magic that prevented one from escaping...

Raven sighed. These tricks were always so hard to get out of. These things that screwed up one's senses, including her perception of magical power, made it virtually impossible to get anywhere, unless one grasped the trick to the illusion. It took quite a bit of careful thinking, usually, although if one was strong enough, it was possible to simply break the illusion through sheer force. Not her way of doing things.

Raven closed her eyes and assumed her classic meditating position, floating slightly above the ground.

Demon magic was a weird thing. It warped reality, space and time, and even the nonreality within one's mind. With it, one could create all sorts of things, real and imagined, and the poor victim would not be able to do a thing about it. Raven frowned and thought deeply, trying to sense the flows of power around her. Was it real? Did the landscape actually change around her as she moved through it? Or was it just her imagination, and was she actually just running around in circles, or not moving at all?

She felt the different magics flying through the air, most of them a deep green, the land itself innately at work, and then some lighter greens, the less powerful demon sorcery at work. But nothing that seemed to be working on her or her surroundings. Different colors, reds and yellows, blue, pink, those were... her emotions?

She frowned, confused, eyes still closed. This wasn't her mind, was it? It wasn't supposed to be-

One of the flows of red materialized in front of her.

_Welcome. _

_Figures you'd be here. What is this place?_

_Niseian's realm. Thought you knew._

_Okay, I know that..._

_He is the demon lord of the realm of the mind. The nobles of this place are masters of the psyche, able to determine every one of their enemies' weaknesses, their vulnerabilities. Every unwelcome visitor is subject to this... test of sorts, demon lord and human alike, unless they have the ability to resist it. And mind you, very few would be able to. Not even Lilith has that kind of power. Probably why this is the most infrequently visited realm, besides the void. _

_You know this... how?_

_You silly duck. I'm not a part of you._

_... I'm a duck? _

_Why, yes-_

Now that she looked at the figure standing before her, it wasn't her after all. Just because she wore red... but this one seemed to be way happier than Rage or Demon Raven. Well, not happier, maybe a bit more excited, fervent. A little crazy.

_The powerful ones who pass through this area leave their imprint behind, a forest a souls this becomes. They leave behind, they show who they really are. All masks are destroyed in the dive into one's own soul. Though they may reform when you leave, what remains here is your true self. Find out who you are._

_A duck, according to you. The phrase, I believe, is 'you silly goose'-_

_Duck sounds cuter. You know, you might not seem like it to other people, but to me you're really cute. _

_Wait a second, you're-_

The cloaked figure stepped into a beam of light penetrating through the blanket of vines above their heads. The cloak wasn't red after all. It was a rosy pink. Raven's brows furrowed as the image of the figure in her mind took off its hood.

_Jinx. Why? _

She instantly felt anger boil up inside her, but the image of Jinx seemed not to notice.

_Jinx? I'm just an impression of your happiness. You know, that pink thing inside you. _

_I thought you said you weren't a part of me-_

_I'm not. I'm just apparently what makes you less unhappy than you normally are. Something that... satisfies you. _

_She does not!  
_

_You don't know yourself as well as you think. Such a powerful empath and you don't even know what you want. How... sad. _

_I know perfectly well what i want!_

_Then tell me what that is. _

Raven opened her mouth, then closed it.

_I-_

The image of Jinx smirked and disappeared. It was replaced by another figure diving out of the air, a blue cloaked one, slight, and fragile looking. Raven frowned. It seemed familiar as well, and even with its hood covering its face, she thought she could tell what it was.

A pair of white eyes opened.

_Strength, weakness, power, or the lack of it. Many say that it doesn't matter, but it does to a degree. If you cannot do anything, what good are you? You might as well just die. Isn't that what you're afraid of... Raven?_

The figure's hood lowered, revealing a very delicate looking version of herself. Raven could not say that she was surprised.

_You're afraid of being weak, aren't you? You don't want to fail, even as much as you say you hate Earth and all of those mortals. You don't want to fail them and think badly of you even though they probably already do. Isn't that it?_

_Of course, _Raven hissed back. _You think I don't already know that?_

_Or something else. You're afraid of those 'weak mortals' more than you are of these seemingly all powerful demon lords, aren't you. You're afraid that you might some find form of peace and content with them, and you're afraid that that illusion will be shattered-_

_It already has been. _

_Why do you fear the scorn of the weak?_

Raven was quiet again. Why was she scared of them? It was no longer a question of whether or not she was. She was always afraid of loss, or the threat of it. But she already had their scorn so... what else was there? Besides, they _should __have _been so far beneath her that she shouldn't even have cared-

_My name is Pride, isn't it? What a joke. What pride is there to have? I am a demon princess and a human, both the scum of the other's world. Both worthless to the other, a blight on both worlds. If I am useless, then what point is there living? _A thought she had contemplated many times.

_Then why do you not kill yourself?_

_Because... because... I fear death too, like anyone else. No reason for it. Well... maybe there is. Maybe... I do have hope. I have some irrational hope that there's something in life for me-_

_Jinx-_

Raven sighed. _Something. Just something. But if it is there, then I'm afraid of losing it. _

_Jinx-_

_What is it with me and Jinx anyway? I mean, she's just another person-_

_People are irrational. Demons too. They care about things that it makes no sense to care about. Like certain other people. For no reason, you become obsessed with her, you feel like you can't live without her, like the world would end without her. In reality, it doesn't matter much, but to you it is something compulsive. So you cannot live without it._

_I'm sure there's some sort of explanation for it. Pheromones, airborne chemicals, something transmitted from person to person that releases endorphins and causes pleasure, so it almost becomes like a drug - you know, people-  
_

_Do you know how stupid you sound?_

_Oh come on, it **is **an explanation._

_Okay, and even if that is true, those are all causes. All that matters to you is the end result. Being obsessed with-_

_Enough, okay?! I-_

_You will find out what you need eventually. _

The blue light faded and was replaced by one of a bloody red.

_You-_

_Yes, me. _

Raven's grimaced. _What do you want? You're not-_

_I am a part of you just as much as Courage, and Timid, and Wisdom are. In fact, I hold a greater sway over your mind than any single one of your other emotions. Watch your temper, Pride._

_No! You aren't-_

_Self control, Pride. You are willful and powerful, but it works to your disadvantage because those two traits have also created me. Remember, control yourself. Repress your anger. Because I am always there if you screw up. And then you will destroy everything you care about._

_Which is nothing. You can even kill me. I don't care._

_That's what you think now. Time will tell if that is the truth or_ not.

Raven sighed as the red light disappeared. _I thought I was supposed to find out who I was. Not be lectured by Rage-_

_You will never know who you truly are, not until you are staring into the face of death. _

A shadow, cloaked in pure black, seemingly massive, blotting out all light and everything else around her, but when she looked closely, it was a figure not much bigger than herself. Raven felt a chill run up her spine. This figure seemed familiar too.

_Who are you?_

_Unimportant._

_I know you. _

_It doesn't matter-_

_Yes it does. You're-_

_You're a mortal. A demon as well. Which are you? Which side rules you?_

_Both, equally. Half and half. _

_So you say. But it, at times, is more one than the other, and at times it seems that you are wholly human or wholly demon. You are not a stagnant being, even if you have your unique traits. Who you are - daughter of Trigon, demon human, girl steeped in darkness, that will not change. **Who **you are may yet be altered, if only a little. Now you find yourself in the depths of the blackest void, or so it seems to you, desolate, abandoned, stricken by solitude. But perhaps in time you may find that the lightless oblivion suits you more than you could have imagined, that isolation may prove to be your friend rather than your enemy, that companionship may only be a lie and being abandoned is truth. Your perspective may change. Who is to say you are right at any given time? _

_Only myself - at any given time I will believe I am right. But right about what?_

_A question without an answer. But remember this. I am also that shadow that lurks over your shoulder at every moment, waiting for my time to claim you for my own. At death's door, the journey to find oneself ends._

_Who are you?_

_I am that which you fight, yet I am not so different from you. _

_A name! I want a name!  
_

_A human obsession. What does it matter if you know my name or not? My name tells you nothing about me. A single, brief sound amidst all your other senses, one easily forgotten, holding no significance in itself. If you wish to know me, extend your soulself, and let our souls brush together. A taste of our inner selves, that will allow you to remember._

Raven gasped. _Wait a second. That darkness. Brushing my soulself against hers. She's my enemy- _

_You're-_

_Indeed, I am. Though my true self does not know that you are my enemy yet. Only a reflection of my inner nature here, able to see into your mind as much as you can see into mine. But our souls change over time. Is this the reflection of me from the distant past? Or of the not long departed present? How things are altered, it never ceases to amaze. _

Raven breathed a sigh of relief._ Then you've changed._

_Perhaps. Time is something strange. It sometimes runs linearly, it sometimes runs in circles. Returning to a point in the past is not impossible. _

The violet haired girl thought carefully for a moment. _But for you - I mean, your real body - she seems so..._

_I understand. But you must always remember to look past the surface before you make your own judgments. This is probably not who I truly am anymore, but only what I was before. So I cannot help you. Perhaps now she is beyond your ability to turn._

_I don't know. But I hate her and I only even met her once. She's just so pretentious, and hateful herself, and she has no regard for-_

_I cannot help you. It is for you to decide how you will deal with me - her - and how you will fight the coming battles. I can only warn you to not fall prey to your own faults. And I can only point you on a path to finding yourself. Truly, it is something you must do on your own._

_I understand. _Raven opened her eyes.

* * *

_It almost feels like I'm playing a fool's game, but I have to go along with it. Looking for something that cannot be found, attempting something impossible... no, this isn't something stupid where we call it impossible but it actually just is really hard. This **is **impossible and yet I'm still trying. _

_What is?_

_Finding myself._

_You're obligated to try. _

_I know, but it seems silly. _

_Well, you're here, and contentment is... over there. And right now there is no bridge between the two of you because you don't have a clue about what matters to you. Once you build that bridge-_

_Forget it. This is hopeless. Just gotta get out of here and do what I came to do._

Raven took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. So, how was she supposed to get out of here again? The magic corrupting her senses still seemed to be in place, and she had no idea which direction actually led to out of the swamp. _Well, wait a second... _

_Those apparitions... they had to have given me some hint as to how to get out of here, and it's not 'finding myself' or whatever that's supposed to mean. There has to be another trick to it. What did they have in common._

_Well they all had a unique color to them-_

_That's it!_

_What?_

_The colors! I just have to follow the green flow of magic and it'll lead me out of here._

_Hmm, maybe. Each realm seems to have its specific color to it besides the void. Lilith's is blue, Sonya's black, Trigon's red, and this one green. _

_And my own personal green color is Courage. You know her. The one that represents moving on and fighting. Moving forward. If that's the case._

_Trust yourself and go with it. _

Raven's eyes flew open and filled with dark energy. Slowly, her vision morphed from the abundant plant life around her to the multicolored view of power in the area around her. Stretching out before her were several flows of different colors, red, yellow, blue, green, many assorted shades of everything, branching out in different directions. Raven found the shade of green that she was looking for, a deeper shade that Courage wore that was incidentally the same as the other greens that she detected throughout the land. A coincidence, or..?

Transforming into a shade of dark energy, she spread her wings and flew along the path.

* * *

Breaking free of the wall of trees, Raven emerged in a wasteland of enormous, dead trees and scorched soil. Hell was not the most hospitable of environments, nor was it famous for its lush greenery. She supposed that the swamp was a rarity, even if it wasn't exactly one's idea of a great vacation spot, but it was living plant life in hell nonetheless.

Or was it another illusion? Demons were famous for layering traps on top of one another - hell, Raven used that trick herself a lot.

She sensed something cast over the area that seemed like it shouldn't be there. Something that would affect the minds of those trapped within it, but it didn't seem to be disturbing her psyche. She extended her range of sensing.

A swarm of green lights around her, the demons she had sensed before, only closer now. And... dimmed? Something must have been suppressing their powers. As she looked around, her vision faded back to normal and she picked out the sleeping forms of many green skinned demons in the trees themselves, which seemed to be hollowed out, allowing them enough space to fit inside.

It was strange, though, because she detected no signs of any buildings or demon made constructs of any kind at all. Usually the realms of hell were mostly empty with one enormous building in the center, the palace of the demon lord and the demon nobles of the realm, and with several smaller ones scattered around, also palaces for the nobles. The underlings always lived in something natural, a cave, hollowed trees, something. But here, there was nothing but the endless stretch of blight, primitive, undeveloped land. It seemed strange that the demon lord himself would choose to live with his subjects, and even stranger that the demon nobles of the realm did not object to it. Typically, they wanted some way to set themselves above those that they ruled over, but...

She detected several more powerful entities, some of them stronger than her, and even up to Trigon's level. Demon nobles, and surely enough, they were residing in those enormous tree trunks as well, though the ones where they were in were much larger; it seemed like the hollowed trunk was wide enough to form a small room, and there were many stacked on top of each other.

But still no sign of Niseian himself.

She turned her attention back to the demon nobles. They seemed to be asleep as well. Whatever sorcery was at work here was extremely powerful if it could affect someone as strong as Trigon. But it must have only affected those who were present upon activation, because Raven herself did not feel drowsy in the least. It would also mean that she had the element of surprise on her side, if she needed it.

She scanned the surrounding area and found a particularly large tree in the center of a clearing, but it seemed to be empty inside - wait...

She flew closer to it and zeroed in on the top room in the trunk. There was something there, a... black mist interfering with the green flows. Something shrouding everything inside, and it was quite well done too. It was only because Raven had years and years of experience with detective work (thanks to Nightwing) that she even noticed it at all, the slight color difference in the atmosphere.

_What is it? Hmm... _Raven extended her soulself in a thin tendril and poked toward the shroud. And suddenly, as she approached it, an immense darkness rushed toward her from within the dark veil, courtesy of...

She ducked aside.

_Shit. She detected me - what do I do? What - Ugh. I'll... _A bead of sweat ran down her cheek. She knew that running wasn't an option. She had already been discovered, and they would catch up to her if not sooner, than later. And Lilith would be caught as well. It was no use trying to pretend she was someone else either, or to try to kill the demon queen - she was simply stronger.

Maybe it would be better to pretend that she wasn't snooping around and that she actually had business to take care of in this realm. In other words, an excuse for being here. Something...

Didn't Lilith say that Niseian was good with delving into the mind or something? Maybe she could be here for some... therapy. Yes, that was it. She had had a mental breakdown and Lilith sent her here to see if Niseian could help her... yeah... she'd need to pull off some good acting to convince _her. _

Raven sighed. Well the first step was to stop snooping around.

She made her way to the large tree and walked up to it, knocking on the wall of wood.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

Silence for a few minutes. She tried again.

This time, one section of tree trunk fell in, as if beckoning her to come. Raven took a deep breath and entered, and the opening closed behind her.

* * *

Raven ascended the stairs tentatively, floating up toward the still veiled top level, where she knew that trouble would be waiting for her. As she approached it, she saw that her view was blocked off by swirling dark particles in the air, which emitted some sort of substance between them that reflected all light like a mirror. She pulled back her hood and moved closer, wondering if she should make her presence known.

Apparently that was not necessary. "Wait there," a toneless voice sounded from inside the room.

Raven nodded and sat on the ground. _This is close enough. I can probably listen in without her sensing me- _

"Azarath mentrion zinthos," she whispered, and her soulself left her body.

From within, a conversation could be heard, and a moment later, she got an image in her mind of two figures staring at each other hatefully. A male demon with many glowing eyes on his forehead, green skin, antlers crowning his head like Trigon's... maybe that was a male thing. He seemed huge, almost like a miniature tree himself, heavily muscled, except his hands didn't look like flesh at all but wood instead.

And the other? Dark, slightly reddish hair, pale crimson skin, those highborn features... she knew who that was.

"Niseian," Sonya said coldly. "For plotting against his majesty Lord Shahaar... well, I'm sure you can guess what the punishment is."

"Death?" His voice was deep and gravelly, without a hint of fear in it. It almost sounded like he was mocking her.

"No, death would be far to lenient a punishment for you. We could force you into servitude to him, but that would be pointless since you're too weak for that. You'll be thrown into the void."

"And this is the final verdict?"

"He said it was up to my discretion. Whatever happens to you, I decide. And I say you're not valuable enough for us to use. So off you go. Don't worry, we'll take good care of your realm for you."

"Over my dead body."

Niseian gestured, and suddenly, the tree around her came alive, branches growing out of nowhere, holding Sonya back. The demon queen did not struggle at all and did not give off any signs of surprise.

Actually, once she hit the wall, she began laughing.

"Really? Physical attacks? I can't believe you've resorted to such a base way to attack me! How pathetic-"

"It's not a physical restraint. I know you could break free of it easily if you wanted to. No, think of it as a... conduit."

Sonya's eyes instantly narrowed. "Don't mess with me, Niseian. You're in over your head. If you think your mind games are going to work on me," and suddenly, she was shrouded in a cloak of terrifying darkness, "then you've got something else coming."

Niseian frowned and seemed to be trying to activate something, but clearly it wasn't working.

"How did you..?"

"Like I said, you are a fool. When two minds brush against each other, the strong will will win. Even if you were the one who initiated it, once inside the mind, it's all a matter of who's stronger. And clearly, you are weak. Get lost."

The darkness surged forward and consumed him utterly, and after a moment, it faded and was gone.

Sonya's eyes glimmered dangerously and then calmed, cooling from the heated red they had been a moment ago. She sighed lightly and turned toward the opening to the room below. The mist faded, and she descended down the stairs.

* * *

Raven's eyes opened and she gasped softly. She readied herself mentally and stood as she saw the demon queen enter the room.

"I'm here to see-"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you are. Unfortunately, he's... not going to be able to attend to you. So, here I am instead. How can I help you?"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "You're... not going to question why I'm here?"

Sonya looked at her critically. "Listen, mortal, and listen well. Ordinarily _nothing _you do would escape my attention, but today I happen to be in a rather bad mood, so I don't exactly give a shit about what a little mortal wants to do while she's in hell. Obviously you have a reason for coming here, and I'm _sure _it's a good one, either that, or you've come up with a good excuse for doing something you're not supposed to."

She looked at Raven darkly, and the violet haired girl simply stared back, betraying nothing of what she felt. Sonya laughed curtly.

"You brushed up against my barrier earlier. You know what I was doing."

"Um... yeah, sounded like you were having an argument."

_"Some people think they are stronger than they actually are."_ She emphasized each world, speaking slowly and clearly. "I know you know about it. The demon king."

"I-"

"Don't try to pretend you don't. You were eavesdropping on our conversation."

Raven blinked a couple times, and then held her hands up. "Fine, you caught me. I heard some stuff. So who is this Lord Shahaar guy?"

"Lilith didn't tell you about him?"

"No. She just said something about nine demon lords and that was it."

_Either she's a great liar or... hmm... she's telling the truth? I didn't think Lilith would be stupid enough to openly antagonize the master, but I always felt that she had some sort of... rebellious nature inside her. I was so sure that - nevermind. Me being paranoid._

Sonya's eyes glimmered again. "Lord of the ninth circle of hell, the void, as you heard me mention, and the most powerful among us. He helps keep... order in this world."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The demon queen smirked. "Perhaps this is a good time to educate you."

_Pretentious fool. I'm not as ignorant as you think I am. _Raven frowned very slightly, but Sonya didn't notice.

"You may believe that the mortal world is oh so wonderful, lawful, and orderly - compared to hell, at least - but in reality it is merely an anarchy. Mortal worlds are the embodiment of chaos and such an environment only breeds the worst kind of beings, cowards, fools, and worst of all, weaklings."

_And what's with you and being obsessed with strength, huh? Last I checked, there was more to a person or demon than just being strong. _

"Here in the demon world, we have established order, us demon lords keeping the masses in check, the demon underlings keeping those pesky monsters than inhabit these lands in line, and then the demon nobles who advise and follow the demon lords. When a demon lord proves to be... out of control, as Niseian has been, then either the demon nobles of the realm remove him or her, or occasionally, if there is a powerful demon lord of the void, then that one can remove other demon lords as well. A system to remove morons from power."

"And if the demon lord of the void is corrupt?"

"Watch your tongue," Sonya snapped at her, and Raven held her hands up again.

"Sorry, was just wondering."

"I refuse to answer. The implications of such a question... just remember one thing, mortal. You are in the presence of demons, not the petty humans you are used to. Watch yourself, or it will come back to hurt you in the end."

Sonya turned away and Raven's eyes narrowed hatefully. The demon queen did not see, and simply waved hand over her shoulder.

"Oh, also, if you needed to see Niseian for something, obviously he isn't here anymore, so you can just go find one of the demon nobles. They'll be able to help you, I'm sure. Have fun with your... endeavors," Sonya drawled, mockingly.

Raven barely resisted the urge to spit at her. _Cocky, ignorant moron. You don't know **anything **about anyone else, yet you pretend you do, like you've deciphered all those 'simplistic mortals' and even other demon lords. You think you're so great, like you're queen of the world or something. Yeah, right. _

Sonya turned back again and her eyes met Raven's, who were once again devoid of all emotion.

"I mean it, mortal. Don't poke your nose where it doesn't belong." And with that, she was gone in a flash of darkness.

_Bitch._

* * *

A/N: I'm planning to start a new story, well, actually two new stories, but I'm only willing to get started on one right now. There is a poll on my profile and a bit of information explaining each story. Let me know which one you want to see first.


	21. Wings of Culling

Disclaimer: DC stuff not mine

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

_On wings of culling demons fly,_

_Consumed by pride and wicked vice,_

_Not heeding peril's awful cry,_

_Til darkness brings its endless nights. _

_A stricken raven steeped in black,_

_Finds naught but grief in solitude,_

_Forsaken, spurned, what does she lack?_

_There's nothing left to do but brood._

_A sense of dread pervades the air,_

_Such terror plagues her night and day,_

_What precipice, how will she fare?_

_Emotion shall betray dismay,_

_Her life at stake so is she fated,_

_To face her end or death abated._

* * *

_Four remain... _

Lilith's voice rang clearly through Raven's mind. _But from what you witnessed, it looks like they're going to clean up the ranks of the demon lords soon. Move quickly to warn them, or she'll get to them first. If you're not too late already._

_She frightens me. And invokes a loathing in me that I never thought I'd feel for anyone except my father. She's..._

_Awful, yes. And powerful. Watch your tongue around her. She does not have a hot temper, but she's ruthless. Just like her master._

_I already knew that. But how will I find them? She'll be suspicious if she sees me talking to another one-_

_Do your best. If nothing else, just try to gather information. We have to do something._

_I have a feeling I'm in over my head... but don't worry. I'll try._

_I know. Be sure that you're not caught._

_I feel as if it would not be the worst thing in the world. But I won't get caught. Don't worry. _Raven broke off the mental link and looked up. On the outskirts of her father's realm, inferno, she could sense most of the powerful entities in the other demon realms, save for anything in the last one, void. It seemed that most of the demon lords and nobles were still in their respective realms, from what she could sense, with the obvious exception of Niseian and Sonya, who was paying Lilith another visit. But there was something off about their energy, something agitated... clearly disturbed. Maybe now wasn't the best time to drop in...

She took a deep breath and nearly jumped out of her skin as someone approached behind her.

"Wrath?"

"Pride. What are you doing..?"

"None of your business. I'll be going now," she said coldly.

Wrath's eyes narrowed. "You realize, you put father out of commission for now, right? That means there's no one governing this realm. Technically, you defeated him, so you should be the one in command here-"

"No," Raven snapped back. "Technically, I have to kill him to rightfully become a demon lord. Leave me be, I have important things to take care of-"

Wrath leaned in close and his voice dropped to a whisper. "Things pertaining to the demon king, right?"

Raven frowned inwardly, but kept her face smooth and impassive.

"A demon queen, actually," she replied coolly. "I'm not too keen on getting involved with him."

Wrath looked at her critically. "I can't tell if you're lying or not-"

"I'm not."

"... but I'm telling you right now, most of us - your brothers - are willing to follow you right now. We're on your side. Nobody else's."

"As reassuring as that is-"

"I'm not telling you to trust us. Just letting you know."

Raven closed her eyes. "Whatever you say. I'm leaving now."

Wrath nodded and disappeared in a swirl of dark energy. A few moments, Raven followed suit and was gone.

* * *

"Zauberin," Sonya didn't not turn as a solitary light penetrated the massive darkness that was her throne room.

"I'm surprised you know about me," her voice came out in a spine chilling rasp.

The light faded and the two demons were left alone in the murky black.

"Of course I know about you. The master did tell me. About you. Bael and Morno as well."

"I was not aware... that he trusted the likes of you with such information."

"The likes of me? I am a demon queen, one of those who lords over the demon realms, the highest station in demon society-"

"In _old _demon society. You are a part of the old world. We are part of the new one, where there is no rank that determines your worth, but your strength alone."

Sonya laughed. "Well put. I agree with you fully."

Zauberin's smirked devilishly. "It seems that you know your place. Then shall we greet each other?"

"Indeed, it is the first time that we have met."

Their respective soulselves stretched out and intertwined, and after a moment, retreated.

"Impressive. You managed to conceal much of yourself from me. More than I could keep from you."

"It was out of courtesy that I did not try to pry further," Sonya replied smoothly. _After all, the mind is my strong point. But in terms of raw power... she's stronger... much stronger... _Sonya hid her discomfort and continued on. "Regardless, what have you come for?"_  
_

"Just to say hello. And just to mention that you have free reign in dealing with the other demon lords. If you find weeds in your garden, you have to stamp them out. Unless you wish for your garden to die..."

Sonya could perceive the other demon's form through the darkness, the skeletal figure floating upon a pair of blood colored wings, the gory, crimson colored armor it wore, black tendrils in place of hair, and the mask, the awful mask, merely a black plate covering her face, yet still so awful nonetheless. There was something unnerving about it, as if she were actually faceless, a tool, a weapon, nothing more. Well, that _was _what she was... wasn't that what they all were?

Past the mask, the pale reddish skin, almost pink, the thin black lines running through her skin, turning at right angles, and as far as she could see, running down her neck and through the rest of her body. Almost machine-like, mechanical. Indeed, her skin was so perfectly smooth that it might have been something crafted not of flesh, but it had all the appearance and texture of normal skin.

She appeared to be rather flat chested - it was hard to tell, under her armor, but certainly the curve of her breast was not very large - and the slim, almost boyish figure almost made one doubt her gender, at least not looking at her face. Behind that mask, she could have been anyone. Completely unrecognizable.

Not that it was a bad thing... not according to demon culture, which stated that everyone should give his or her life for those above them when the time called for it... but it was still unnerving. She wasn't sure why.

There was always a sense one got, the so called "gut feeling" that had an unnatural way of being right when there was no reason for it. But like animals, higher sentience beings had that sense of something being wrong, and though they often tried to reason that there was no basis behind that baseless feeling, the sensation never left. Even one as powerful as a demon lord was subject to such feelings.

A sickening sensation, although not many things sickened her any more. A demon queen, she had seen all sorts of things that demons did to their foes... torture, unspeakable torture that they brought upon each other, bloodlust consuming their entire souls, erasing who they once were and making them mindless, frenzied ghouls. No, she was rarely ever sickened, but something about the blood angel - that was what she had taken to calling her - made her feel ill. An aura of soul rending, that was what it was. Being near the blood angel caused her to sense strange things, sometimes screams, the screams of countless voices, sometimes pure gore, blood, guts, bodies torn apart, sheer violence, hatred... Pure, ineffable horror. Terror in its greatest sense - the only reason she could even withstand it was she was a demon queen, famed for her willpower, for her own cruelty, for being fearsome, for having no weaknesses... or at least being able to hide them really well.

"We'll be in touch," Zauberin said softly, and a light shone briefly in the darkness before fading away again.

Sonya gritted her teeth and tried to control her trembling.

* * *

Jinx walked down the street, one of the many now deserted streets of Jump City, which had recently witnessed a multitude of events, from Nightwing terrorizing the streets to demon attacks, and now people were often too scared to come out anymore, at least in the more run down areas of the city. It was just a bad impression, not actually dangerous, but it kept people away.

Except for Jinx, it seemed.

She wasn't the type accustomed to long, solitary walks, but she had gotten more used to it after meeting Raven. Being alone, free from human interaction, it was a time for inward reflection, or maybe just peaceful rest.

Of course, peace was anything she had on her mind. Raven's influence. Never at rest, always thinking, brooding, pondering why... why everything. _Well, maybe I'm not that philosophical. But still, everything seems so off right now. Maybe it's because she's not here and I'm alone again. _

_I have friends._

_Friends who do not understand me. Of course not. She was right. Some people are just very hard to understand. It takes another person of either incredible empathy or a person in the same situation to really get me. And she has both of those traits. She gets it. We're not heroes. We're not villains. We're just ... different. _

_Too bad you're gone now, Raven._

Jinx heaved a sigh. There really seemed to be nothing good in life for her. And everything good that did pop up was gone before she knew it. Kid Flash... just an illusion... Raven...

She continued walking aimlessly down the streets, unsure of where she was going or what she was doing. Rather strange, for her. She was always the type of person who tried to give her life direction, perhaps as a substitute for not knowing why she had been born, why she was even alive, but she had always tried to set a goal and work for it, whether it was joining the Brotherhood of Evil, becoming a Titan, or planning another heist... She wasn't used to the type of ennui that was so prevalent in say, Raven's personality.

It didn't seem to fit her very well either. People were used to seeing her as a happy, or at least very excited person, ever on the move, always somewhat melodramatic, or spazzy. Not languid, depressed. Perhaps she wasn't as seeming as she appeared.

Jinx looked up as she heard something. A meowing sound, like a cat, but with an edgy growl to it, almost a demonic sound. Frightened, she looked around and found the source of the sound - indeed a cat, a slender, very thin, dark haired cat with glowing violet eyes. It stared at her from out of a dark alley, its eyes fixated upon her... _what a strange kitty... _

She approached it tentatively, walking into the the darkness. And froze as her eyes adjusted to the absence of light in the alley. _No way. It can't be a coincidence. _The cat had _purple _fur... Jinx paused for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Here kitty, kitty..." she drew closer, but it hissed at her, eyes flaring up. "Errr, never mind..." she backed away, still looking at it curiously.

_Maybe a more diplomatic approach. _

She quickly ran over to a nearby store and bought some milk, then went back. It was still there, its half lidded gaze not focused on anything until she came back in sight. It moved forward as Jinx held out the carton of milk, watching her warily. She smiled, hoping to pacify the creature, but it did not return the gesture. It lapped at the milk with its small pink tongue, and then seemingly satisfied that she wasn't a threat, turned its gaze away from her and gave off a noise of pleasure as it drank the milk.

It meowed again, licking the milk off of its whiskers. Jinx drew closer and stretched out her hand slowly, not wanting to frighten the cat. It did not move as she made contact with its fur, petting it lightly. The cat purred, its eyes closing, and curled up by her leg, seeming to want to sleep. Jinx looked around for a moment, then gathered the creature up in her arms and set off for the Tower.

* * *

She woke up in the middle of the night, a chill running down her spine, and sat up, shaking. Beside her, the cat stirred, its violet eyes gleaming softly in the darkness as they opened. It nuzzled against her side, as if asking her what was wrong, but obviously she couldn't answer. Instead, both of them waited there, tense, sensing danger in the air.

An unnatural darkness came about the room and the pair drew closer together - Jinx could feel the cat press against her body, as if she could protect it from whatever was coming.

She wanted to call out, to trigger the alarm, to do anything to alert the other Titans about whatever was there, if there was anything there at all, but her body would not move and her throat would not permit her to speak. Frozen there, as if in rapture, she could only watch as the surroundings of her room faded away and the darkness grew absolute, a black void that obscured everything else and cast her into oblivion.

But it did not seem to care about her. Jinx sensed the pressure in the dark atmosphere shift and press against the cat, who pressed against her even more in an attempt to escape the gathering shadows. To no avail. As if in great fury, the darkness began to swirl rapidly around them, mimicking a wrathful tempest of pure shadow, the pressure on them increasing to the point where it was suffocating, crushing their bodies through sheer force.

On the brink of unconsciousness, everything seemed to waver in shades of darkness, a spiral of violet around her, morphing into a spiral of crimson, blood red, and then back into nothingness, consumed by the all powerful void. Fading into subconsciousness, and then returning, as she gathered her strength and tried to resist. But it was not by her power that the black faded, rather, it was by its own will, it seemed. Gradually, her surroundings returned and as her room appeared back in place, she breathed a sigh of relief. Jinx looked down.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw that the cat had lost its violet tinged fur and now was just an ordinary black cat with still gleaming eyes, but no longer the violet color that she was so fond of. And yet it seemed to be the very same one she had picked up earlier - it was the same size, it was still very thin, it still seemed as strange and suspicious of everything as ever. Only, it wasn't violet any more.

Jinx looked at the cat strangely for a couple minutes, not sure what to make of it. It looked back at her. Sighing, she lay back and felt it curl up against her, then fell asleep.

* * *

In the blood red skies, the clouds began to swirl rapidly, angrily, and in waves of tremendous fury, fire began to rain down, cascading over the land, scorching the already razed earth further.

It wasn't an uncommon sight in Inferno, but rarely did the firestorms have such intensity, such fury about them that even the demonic world itself seemed to be breaking apart. Indeed, the land began to rumble, the earth cracking, huge pillars of magma spewing out from the ground, penetrating the layer of spiraling clouds in the sky, lightning the world with a blazing glow.

Raven frowned as she looked up. Obviously something was about to happen, but what? Who could have instigated it? Someone in Inferno? But Trigon was supposed to be sealed, and none of her brothers had the power to do this...

She stood and dodged aside as a massive bolt of lightning struck down right where she had just been sitting.

"What the..."

"Greetings, underlings, nobles, and fellow lords," a voice suddenly rang out of the sky. A very familiar voice, low and deadly, gilded, highly pretentious... The queen of darkness.

"A meeting has been called. Answer the summons, or you shall be destroyed on the spot. Of course, with the exception of Lord Trigon the Terrible, who has been temporarily... incapacitated. You, daughter of Trigon, you may take his place in his absence. Ah yes, and Lady Lilith, you are exempt as well. We have already spoken. You know where to go. See you shortly."

The swirling in the sky intensified further and suddenly, a circle of darkness appeared in the middle of the clouds. A moment later, a great beam of black energy flew downward, materializing into a slender, feminine form in front of Raven, a figure slightly taller than her with gleaming, crimson eyes.

"Sonya," Raven hissed.

"Lady Sonya to you, girl." The darkness faded and there she was. Dark red hair, dusky red skin that seemed darker than its usual color, a gown spun of pure black fabric. "You heard the message, I presume-"

"You're going to kill them," it suddenly dawned on her. "You're going to kill them all. And me-"

"You? Not yet. No, not quite yet. No, in fact, I want to keep you alive. Them, we shall see."

"Why?"

"You do not understand our culture, girl. Do not judge before you know more. For now, it is sufficient to say that they have defied us. Or it is enough to say that it should not matter to you. Why does it concern you?"

"It seems unjust."

"And who are you to determine that? In our world, justice is the words that come from the mouths of those superior to us. Accept your fate, deal with it. If you want to fight your fate, then get stronger. That is the demon way."

Raven's eyes glimmered, but she said nothing.

Sonya's brow furrowed. "Regardless, I did not come here to talk about this. You are expected at this meeting. My throne room, in Umbra. I'm sure you'll be able to find it. We are clear on this, yes?"

"As clear as can be," Raven said tightly, careful not to betray any hint of insolence or anger, but still rather... tightly nonetheless.

Sonya looked at her darkly, then after a few moments, she seemed satisfied. "Good. See you soon. We'll begin shortly." She turned away and was gone in a flash of black.

Raven looked at the spot where she had disappeared hatefully, before cursing under her breath and following suit.

* * *

Umbra, the heart of an eclipse, a realm blacker than the moonless night, the earth a solid plain of pure ashen rock, darkened buildings rising out of the ground, unseen in the absence of light, spires of obsidian rising into the smoky sky, black clouds and lightless stars. But that was not where she was to be found.

Raven looked down instead, scanning past the layer of dark earth beneath her and finding a huge labyrinth of tunnels and caverns leading far down into the ground. _Perhaps there... _She phased down through the layers of cold rock and found herself in a tunnel, completely devoid of any light or sound. She closed her eyes and let her other senses take over... she felt the flows of magic leading down one path and floated cautiously forward. The flow intensified as she drew nearer, splitting into several different types of power, represented by their different colors. But all overshadowed by the tremendous darkness.

She sensed a door in front of her... a door wasn't quite the right term. More like a field of energy barring her entrance to the deepest part of Umbra, the abode of the queen of darkness herself. She floated toward it, extending her soulself cautiously to try to phase past it, but the barrier would not let her through.

_Sonya?_

_Lady Sonya. I hate having to repeat myself-_

_Right. Lady Sonya. May you let me in please?_

_As you wish. _

The barrier fell and Raven entered the room, where a little bit of light shone upon five figures, four standing facing the fifth one, who was seated upon a throne of black energy.

"Welcome," Sonya said softly.

"What's this all about, Sonya? Calling us here as if we were your servants? We are not here to do your every whim and bidding."

"Oh, you won't regret coming here. Better to be humiliated in private rather than in front of all your underlings, don't you think?"

"What are you-"

"Don't pretend that you don't know. Even our little friend here knows why I have called this meeting." She gestured toward Raven, but none of the others turned. "Perhaps not the details. But she gets the gist of it."

There was a tense silence.

"What purpose would that serve? We hold the greatest power among those in our respective realms. Get rid of us and you'll only have the weaker ones to serve you."

"Not true at all," she hissed in reply. _Zauberin would be a good example of that. _"But regardless, you fools are all unfit for your positions. Had you been ready earlier, the invasion of the mortal realms would have already been underway. As it stands now, we are far behind schedule."

"Does it matter? We are immortal, after all. Time is not crucial."

"As for us being unfit, that is not true either. We can manage our own realms."

"Those with power," Sonya replied coldly, "those with a certain station and the strength to hold it are responsible for more than themselves. Those that hold a station, in our society, those called lords or nobles, are to be the leaders of our kind and are expected to do more than be useless slugs that can do nothing but sit back, languid, because of the fear of their own weakness and the fear of those with yet more power than them. No, not even that. The pure petty weakness that pervades your being, the weakness that does not beget you the title of demon lord, and yet it is a title that you have received nonetheless. I wonder how that came to be."

"It is not weakness, Sonya, it is-"

"Then what is it?" She retorted sharply. Don't think I don't know. You are all terrified of us. Of _him,_because you all fear that he will end your miserable lives as soon as he's finished with you. And you know what? You're right. Because you're weak. If you were stronger... but there is no use hypothesizing about that. You're not."

"If we are weak, then ignore us. There is no need for you to deal with us if we are useless to you anyway, right?"

"Indeed, there should be no need. However," Sonya's eyes narrowed. "However, that is not the case. You still don't get it, do you? It's not about you. It's not even just about removing those who would try to oppose us. It's simply about sending a message. Strength is the core of our society. Those without the power to wield that responsibility must be removed."

He closed his eyes. "Very well, I understand-"

"No, you don't. There is another thing. Opposition to the Lord is fine and dandy, but keep it to yourself and take any problems you have to him." _If you even dare to face him. _"You, however, chose the coward's path of hiding behind your underlings and trying to rally them against us. Don't think we don't know. It's written all over your face. You were planning a coup."

"No-"

"Yes. Remember this well. It's about sending a message. Opposition is tolerated, to an extent. But those who cross the line are not given a second chance."

And suddenly, the area around them grew dark with the creeping black emanating from the demon queen and it concentrated around him, engulfing his body. A single scream could be heard for a moment, and then he was just gone. Disappeared into the void.

The darkness faded and she turned to the other three.

They all paled. "Alright, Sonya. We get it. We will step down and-"

A slight smirk touched her lips. "You didn't hear me, did you? If you wish to take on that responsibility, make sure you have that power to wield it. And make sure you know when to fight your battles, and when to obey those you cannot overcome."

"I said we get it, Sonya. We won't oppose you. We will step down and allow another to take our 'station' as you called it-"

"No. You know, I hate having to repeat myself so many times. Indeed, you've already heard this like what, three times? It's about sending a message. Let this be a lesson to all others so that I might not have to deal with fools in the future."

The darkness spread again and in an instant, they were gone as well.

Raven closed her eyes and turned away. Despite the fact that they were demon lords and not supposed to be pitied... this was just awful. _How could she just kill them, just like that? Aren't they supposed to be like... comrades or something? _

"Don't look so shocked, Pride. You knew it would happen," Sonya said quietly.

"Not so suddenly," Raven retorted. "I thought... you'd give them a chance. I just happened so quickly... unexpectedly..."

"Such is the way things happen in this world. But, enough of that. It is unimportant."

_Not to them... _"What do you want with me?"

"A good question. What do I want to do with you?" Sonya said silkily, a hint of danger in her voice. "Don't think we're stupid. You're more than you seem, but I can't quite put my finger on what you really are. Why are you here? What is your purpose? I don't think you would be one foolish enough to try to subvert the master's will, but it is still a possibility."

Raven raised an eyebrow, and Sonya laughed.

"Just voicing my thoughts. I want nothing from you right now. Take care."

"Why did you bring me here to see this? What use was it?"

Sonya turned a dark gaze upon her. "Was it really so disturbing? Perhaps you think me cold, ruthless? Perhaps so. If that is the case, then let that be the reason I showed you."

"To show me how ruthless you are?"

"Certainly. If that is the reason you wish to find in it."

Raven bit her lip and said nothing.

Sonya laughed. "You find me infuriating don't you? You don't need to answer that," she said quickly, as Raven shifted uncomfortably. "Regardless, I do have one thing I would ask of you."

"And what makes you think I'll do it?"

"It would be in your interest as well as mine. It is something personal to you."

Raven frowned. _A secret of mine that she somehow found out? But what would it be? _

"A well known secret of yours, Pride. Well, a secret among humans but not among us demons. You already incapacitated your father, Lord Trigon. It is time for you to finish the job."

Raven paled slightly. "You want me to kill him?"

"Does that seem wrong to you?"

_Does it? Killing isn't wrong, but to kill out of pure spite, for pure revenge... that is wrong for sure. And yet... _Of course she hated her father. For what he had done to her, her friends, her world... but wasn't Sonya about to do the same thing? It wasn't something so unique to her father, yet it did not lessen her hatred at all. Was it really such a difficult decision to make?

Of course not.

"No," she replied without hesitation. "I want him dead," she admitted. "Maybe it's illogical. Yeah. I tend to be a bit illogical. But he's been the cause of my suffering ever since I was born. He tried to use me as his tool, he tried to turn my friends against me. He ruined everything..."

"A vendetta, then. No matter what you want to call it, whatever your motives, it seems that both of us want him gone."

"Why do you want him dead, though?"

"Did you not hear my lecture about power?"

Raven grimaced. Like she needed to hear that again. The only question was, was she strong enough to do it?

"Remember," Sonya smirked knowingly, "when you defeat a demon lord in one on one combat, you gain the right to become the new demon queen. And that means, one less demon realm that you have to deal with when we invade your precious home world. In other words, a better chance for you to save those petty mortals."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at..."

"It is what you want, is it not?"

"You know nothing of what I want."

The demon queen shrugged. "Suit yourself. But remember, time is always limited. If you refuse to do it, then I will. And Trigon's armies will be under _my _command, and not yours. Decide quickly..."

Sonya suddenly faded into the darkness and Raven felt the void press in about her, forcing her to the brink of unconsciousness. A few minutes later, her mind cleared and she found herself above ground again, standing on the blackened earth of Umbra.

Saying nothing, her face betraying no emotion, she floated away, contemplating the task at hand.


End file.
